CRUISE & STAY 3
WAYS TO SELL
CRUISE & STAY
1. Start with the destination Ask what the customer wants
to see and do beyond the ship, then look at how the cruise can fit into the wider itinerary. Have a couple of easy add-ons up your sleeve for the cruises you sell most often.
2. Sell the experience, not just extra nights
Don’t limit cruise-and-stay to a few extra hotel nights in their departure port. Consider
ABOVE: Cruise-and-stay works particularly well in a long-haul destination such as Sydney BELOW: Clia’s Andy Harmer
to sell the full holiday rather than the cruise alone. By combining a sailing with hotels, flights, transfers, tours and other experiences, agents can create a more complete and personalised trip, while increasing the overall value of the booking.” It can also make the role and
expertise of an agent even more indispensable. A customer booking a cruise alone may be able to do so directly, but an itinerary involving flights, rail journeys, hotels, transfers and touring is a different proposition. The agent becomes the person joining the dots to make sure everything is as seamless as possible, giving customers peace of mind and an incentive to come back for future bookings.
And it is not only about attracting people who have never cruised by adding elements on land, according to data from The Cruise Line. “There is little difference between new and seasoned cruisers in terms of who the packages appeal to. You would assume cruise-and-stay appeals far more to first-timers, but it doesn’t,” says Smith.
travelweekly.co.uk uk That makes the proposition
relevant across the customer base, including experienced cruisers looking for a more ambitious or experience-led holiday next time.
WHERE IN THE WORLD Cruise-and-stay comes into its own when there is a destination or experience worth building a wider holiday around. For river cruising, a Mekong journey can be paired with hotel stays and touring in Vietnam and Cambodia, while a Nile cruise can be extended with time in Cairo. Ocean cruising opens up a different range of possibilities. New York is a popular add-on before or after a transatlantic crossing; Florida’s theme parks can be paired with a Caribbean cruise; and a Canadian rail journey makes a natural prelude to an Alaska sailing. There is also scope to build
t
holidays around major events and experiences, such as combining a European cruise with a Formula One race. At its most
ambitious, cruise- and-stay can reach wish-list territory: exploring Machu Picchu before
E Cruise and tour Spend a few days exploring Budapest and Vienna alongside a Danube river cruise, or book a guided tour of mainland Greece before a sailing around the Greek islands.
E Cruise and wildlife Make a Galápagos expedition the centrepiece of a trip that also explores
joining an Amazon river cruise, or combining an Antarctic expedition with a visit to Iguazu Falls. The key for agents is not to think of the cruise as the whole holiday. Instead, treat it as the anchor and build around it with the right hotel, tour, rail journey or experience. Get it right and the customer has a holiday that’s tailored to their travel wish list – while the agent gets a bumper booking.
TW
rail journeys, touring, wildlife experiences, events and
overland adventures that complement the sailing.
3. Build the whole journey Think about flights, hotels,
transfers and experiences as one trip rather than separate bookings. The easier you make the journey for the customer, the more value you can add – and the more of the whole holiday you can sell.
GO BEYOND THE BEACH
E Cruise and rail Combine a Swiss rail journey with a Rhine river cruise, or take a scenic train trip through Norway before a Norwegian fjords sailing.
Ecuador’s mainland, or add a South African safari to a cruise from Cape Town.
E Cruise and event Time a Mediterranean cruise to coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix, or follow the Edinburgh Festival with a summertime cruise around the British Isles.
E Cruise and city Extend a southeast Asia sailing with time in Singapore, or spend a few nights in Rome before cruising the western Mediterranean.
10 SEPTEMBER 2026 37
PICTURES: Steve Dunlop; Shutterstock/Mark Heider, Shutterstock AI
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