FRONTLINE
did, and it really opened my eyes to the fact that cruising was far more than afternoon tea and bridge at sea.
Q. What was your first cruise like? I became a top seller at Bolsover and won a spot on one of the first sailings on P&O Cruises’ Arvia in the Caribbean. That was my first cruise, and I took my daughter and my partner at the time on board with me. I’ll never forget driving up to the terminal in Barbados and seeing the ship looming above us. Arvia is not even a big ship comparatively, but I thought it was amazing.
Q. What destinations or types of cruising have been popular? For fly-cruise, destinations in Asia such as Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are particularly popular. Croatia, Montenegro and the Dalmatian coast is another trending area, but I wish I could tell every single person on the planet about the Norwegian fjords because I think it’s so underrated. Multigenerational and celebration voyages have been coming up a lot too, which is something the cruise lines want to push at the minute.
Gemma Outram The Not Just Travel franchisee
tells Ella Sagar about becoming a cruise specialist and creating a community on Facebook
Q. How did you get into travel? I didn’t know what I wanted to do and started out at 18 as a trainee travel agent at a high street agency. I took a break when my daughter was born, and when she was five, I started at Bolsover Cruise Club. It’s funny because several years before, my mum had suggested it, and I remember saying: “I’m not old enough to be selling cruise.” But years later, I went for the interview for a part-time role, then went full-time – and I was there for 13 years.
Q. How did you become a cruise specialist? When I started at Bolsover in 2009, I didn’t know anything about cruise, even though I’d been an agent for years. Cruise was barely touched on in training back then [in my previous role] and the sales focus was: “If they want a cruise, they will come in and ask, and it will be a very certain type of folk.” But I threw myself 1,000% into cruise and buried myself in learning all about the different ships. I didn’t want to be on the phone to someone who knew a lot more about it than I
26 3 JULY 2025
Q. What was your most memorable booking? It’s probably one I remember for all the wrong reasons. I absolutely messed up one of my first-ever bookings – and it’s something I’ve carried with me for the past decade and a half. My customer was travelling with their mother in a wheelchair, but I failed to book a cabin that complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act. I felt so awful when I got the call from the ship. The cruise line sorted it all out, but it taught me a valuable lesson about how careful you must be with other people’s holidays – with their money, annual leave and all those elements they are trusting you with. You have got to make sure they have the best experience ever, and that’s something I carry through to every single one of my bookings now.
Q. What made you set up your own business? I left Bolsover in 2022 to become a cruise business development manager at Not Just Travel. I thought I was done with sales. But after a few months, I found I loved the franchise model, and I decided to do something with it. It was only ever meant to be a side-hustle, but it got to a point in the middle of last year where I thought I could live comfortably from the bookings that I was doing at evenings and weekends. My sales were at £2 million about 18 months after setting up, and since I went full-time with the business in November, it’s more than doubled to £4.5 million.
Q. What’s next for your agency? I would like to take on an apprentice, so that I can pass on my knowledge and passion. That’s potentially a path that I would like to go down, with the aim to just keep growing. I would definitely like to hire somebody at some point, because there is only so much one person can do.
travelweekly.co.uk
HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR CLIENTS?
My business is all pretty much organic, with a lot of repeats and onboard bookings. I get all my customers through social media, and I do not do any paid advertising or post offers. I was one of the first agents to appear on
Facebook about 10 years ago, as I had seen little community groups popping up for cruises. I joined some to get insider tips and hear things from the passenger side, and became part of
the conversation. I realised the most common question
was: “How do you book your cruises?” I approached a
group admin to ask if I could reply to comments, and went to the director at Bolsover to get permission to make a
Facebook page for work. They both agreed, even though no one was doing that at the time. And it just blew up from there. It’s not crazy numbers but I have 6,500 followers and a million views every 90 days. My clients see me as a pal that happens to book
cruises. They send me pictures of themselves with strawberry daiquiris, because they know that’s the first thing that I do when I get on a ship.
Gemma on a P&O Cruises cooking course
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