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Cruise.co.uk introduces standalone luxury division
C
ruise specialist agency
Cruise.co.uk has launched a luxury division called
Aboveandbeyondluxury.cruises, which it claims will provide “the ultimate concierge service”. It is headed by Elaine Ross,
formerly of
Iglu.com, Gill’s Cruise Centre and Royal Caribbean International. Most recently, she worked for P&P Associates before moving to
Cruise.co.uk last September in a consultancy role. Deputy managing director Tony
Andrews admitted the agency had tried to get into the luxury cruise sector before but not succeeded. “We would send luxury emails
that drove people to the Cruise. co. uk website [but] that’s where [the journey] fell down,” he said. “We realised we needed a separate entity – a separate website and a separate team.” Andrews also revealed
Cruise. co. uk had tried to acquire a
We realised we needed a totally separate entity – a separate website and a separate team
luxury cruise agency, but a deal had never quite come to fruition. The agency soft-launched the
Aboveandbeyondluxury.cruises website last month and said it would scale it up from this month onwards. “It will be different to what
other people are calling concierge,” claimed Andrews. “We will offer ultimate connectivity to experienced consultants however they want to contact us – whether that’s a call, email, text, WhatsApp or home visit. “We will arrange pet care and
we’ll do welcome-home shops for clients returning from their cruise. We’re taking it to a new level. We don’t see anyone else offering that.”
Andrews said Aboveandbeyond-
luxury.cruises would also apply its tour operating skills to the luxury cruise brands, offering escorted tours and bucket-list adventures as part of its exclusive packages. Two former Cruise. co. uk
consultants “with a high degree of luxury cruise experience” have already moved across to join Ross’s team and she hopes to have up to seven dedicated luxury consultants by the end of the year. Ross said new recruits did not
necessarily need cruise experience but did need to understand the luxury customer. “Taking the Cruise. co. uk tour
operating experience and putting that into luxury – that’s where there’s a gap,” she said. “And with the best service added on top, we think it’s a huge opportunity.” Andrews declined to reveal which
cruise lines would be promoted by
Aboveandbeyondluxury.cruises.
The new website for
Aboveandbeyondluxury.cruises Price concerns rise but Covid and environmental O 10
ver half of customers surveyed by
Cruise.co.uk (54%) said Covid concerns made little or no difference to their interest in taking a cruise in 2023, up from only 29% last year. But the cruise retailer found that the cost-of-living crisis
was impacting some customers’ plans to book a cruise this year, with 24% saying they were still booking but had booked a cheaper cruise, and 6% saying they had postponed all holiday plans until next year. The survey found that price was more important today than this time
last year, with 62% saying it was an important factor, up from 56% last year. But health and safety and cancellation policies were less important, dropping from 67% saying it was important in 2022 to just 56% this year.
Cruise.co.uk invited all its customers to take a 10-minute survey, to which 7,886 people responded.
There’s been a slight hardening of views towards
the environment. People just need a holiday right now. They don’t care too much about its environmental impact
The findings also suggested that slightly more customers were likely to take
an ex-UK cruise in 2023 over 2022, but the number saying they were likely to take a fly-cruise this year was also up on 2022 levels. “This isn’t surprising. We expected to see slightly better, punchier numbers
this year,” said chief executive Chris Gardner. Interestingly, respondents across the board were slightly less satisfied with their last cruise versus last year, but more so in ‘ultra-luxury’ and luxury than
9 FEBRUARY 2023
travelweekly.co.uk
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