NEWS SPECIAL REPORT


Clia UK & Ireland chairman Tony Roberts talks to Harry Kemble about influencers and cruise capacity in his first interview since taking up the role


Roberts: ‘There’s an opportunity to use influencers to engage holidaymakers with the cruise industry’


Clia chairman: We need to engage travel influencers


The new chairman of Clia UK& Ireland plans to use social media influencers to encourage more people to book a cruise through the trade.


Tony Roberts said he felt there


was an opportunity to tap into the services of influencers to engage holidaymakers with the industry.


Roberts said Clia working


groups, which focus on different parts of the cruise sector, are currently formulating “a detailed strategy” to collaborate with influencers. “There is an opportunity to use influencers,” he said. “There is a whole raft of travel influencers who may never have thought about cruise – we need to start working with them. “The working groups will


formulate the detailed strategy, but the overall sentiment is that Clia will seek to include influencers in a similar way it does with agents and the media. “Clia can provide access to some


TONY ROBERTS: Started two-year term as Clia chairman in June


of the resources, education and events to help support our goal of getting more people to choose a cruise and contact their agent.” Reflecting on his first two months as chairman and the development of a two-year strategy, Roberts said: “It is about driving Clia forward, but it is nice to come into something that is not broken.” He added that Clia had proved to be an effective industry voice,


10 travelweekly.co.uk 6 September 2018


citing the recent appearance of Andy Harmer, the association’s vice-president for membership, on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to defend the cruise sector’s safety record, after a passenger fell off an NCL ship. “We are confident that across


the industry there are strong measures in place to avoid this kind of incident happening again,” added Roberts, who is also Princess Cruises’ UK and Europe vice-president. Asked about the rapid growth


of the expedition sector following Seabourn’s entry into the market, Roberts said he was not concerned about overcapacity. Seabourn signed a letter of intent with an Italian shipyard for two ships, for delivery in 2021 and 2022, in July. Roberts said: “The limiting


factor in cruise growth is the number of ships that can be built at shipyards. “There is big growth and the


lines that are expanding into this area understand the market and


know what to do.” › Clia river cruise review, page 12


#ChooseCruise push gives agents online toolkit


Clia agent members can now access an online toolkit and take advantage of cruise offers to help them boost sales this month and next as part of an initiative called #ChooseCruise. The campaign is aimed at agents, consumers and media, and has replaced Plan a Cruise Month. A PR guide, marketing materials, shareable videos and images for social media campaigns are included in the online toolkit. Resources are supplied by cruise lines and are available at cruiseexperts.org. Agents can join a number of #ChooseCruise events, including in Norwich, Manchester and Malaga, plus two beach clean events, in Sussex and Merseyside. Each week during the two- month promotion has been given a dedicated theme, which will be the focus for PR, podcast and social media channels.


Clia will also produce videos and articles on each theme to help showcase how agents can use these experiences to make more cruise bookings.


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