NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4


Celebrity Edge will host 1,000 agents in 2019


Lucy Huxley Fort Lauderdale, Florida


Celebrity Cruises is enhancing its ship visit programme for 2019 with 100 agents invited for an “immersive Edge-class experience in Europe”.


Speaking ahead of this week’s


naming ceremony of new ship Celebrity Edge in Fort Lauderdale,


UK sales director Claire Stirrup reealed agents would be flown to Barcelona and Rome for a “full consumer experience” on board the 2,900-passenger vessel.


“Previously, we have only done ship visits in Southampton and Ireland and agents have just got on for lunch and a look around,” she said. “Next year we are taking it to the


next level for our trade partners. They will have lunch, a tour, time to experience the ship on their own. They will have day rooms to change for dinner, they will eat in one of the restaurants, see a show, then we’ll take them into the city for the evening before overnighting on land and flying ba the net day. Jo Rzymowska, managing


director for the UK, Ireland and Asia, said the longer visits came


Gary Lewis, The Travel Network Group; Claire Stirrup, Celebrity Cruises; and Alison Earnshaw, WTH


in response to Celebrity’s latest researh that found more affluent consumers want to book through an independent third-party agent than they did in 2014, when Celebrity last did the research. She said: “Travel advisors are


more important than ever – and more and more [customers] say they want that agent to have experienced the product.” More than half of consumers


now want to book via agents, up from just under 50% in 2014.


Between the ship visits and


the three-day ‘Festival of Edge’ in the UK from May 13-15, 2019, more than 1,000 agents will have experienced Edge by the end of 2019, Stirrup revealed. Godmother Malala was due to offiially name Celebrity Edge


in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday. ● elebrity this wee onfirmed the departure of strategic account manager Bhavneeta Taylor. The line will announce a new sales team structure within weeks.


5 STORIES HOT


5 Micounties launches PTA Academy


Lucy Huxley lucy.huxley@travelweekly.co.uk


Midcounties Personal Travel Agents has launched a PTA Academy for those applying to become homeworkers without a travel background.


The co-operative’s 160-strong


homeworking division, launched in 2012, had required agents to have at least two years’ experience before joining. Managing director Sheena Whittle said: “It’s all about quality,


not quantity – so productivity rather than overall numbers.” But the group has received a lot of applications from “good people without travel backgrounds”. Six homeworkers with no travel


experience joined a pilot to test the sheme before it was offiially launched this week. A seventh will join next week. “Some applicants had good business plans and skills from other sectors, such as banking,” added Whittle. She said the pilot had delivered “great results”, with one new-to-travel PTA turning over


6travelweekly.co.uk6 December 2018


“It’s all about quality, not quantity – so productivity rather than overall numbers”


£500,000 and winning the group’s newcomer of the year award. It costs £12,000 to join the


academy, which includes a year’s training, support and a mentor. If new members hit a certain threshold in their first year, they get half of the upfront fee back, which two of the six managed.


“The only reason the others haven’t is because they are running lifestyle businesses,” said Whittle. She said the focus would remain


on experienced agents, but there was now a scheme in place for applicants who impress, but do not have experience in travel. Midcounties’ 160 PTAs turned


over a collective £50 million last year – 10% of which came directly from social media. The group recently appointed a social media manager and is “reskinning” its website, which all PTAs have a white-label version of.


PICTURE: STEVE DUNLOP


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