SPECIAL REPORT discuss the wave period, their priorities for the coming year and the family market. Ella Sagar reports


Boosting brand awareness and new-to-cruise are focus


P


Tom Andrews, Seabourn


&O Cruises, Cunard, Seabourn, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises outlined their priorities for 2026, which include targeting new-to-brand customers.


Sales executives said growing brand awareness would


also be a core focus. P&O Cruises’ Ruth Venn said the


brand would continue to concentrate on attracting more new-to-brand customers and focusing on its family offering, pointing to the introduction of five-berth cabins in December and family-friendly sailings on selected dates on Arcadia and Aurora. Holland America Line’s Karen


year-on-year increase in departures from Southampton. Baillie added: “We have got to [boost sales] as we will have


Queen Anne, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary doing round- trip UK deployment, which has not happened since 2018.” Princess Cruises’ Yasmin McKechnie acknowledged there was still “a job to do with brand awareness in the UK” and said the line would be “shifting” its focus to fly-cruise. She said the line, with new national


Karen


Farndell, HAL


Farndell said getting agents on board in Dover would be “a big priority” this year to boost brand awareness in the UK. She added fam trips to Alaska would be “a key focus”


for the line, with plans to commemorate the line’s 80th anniversary of operations in the region next year. Cunard’s Iain Baillie said 2027 voyages would be a big


focus, as would rolling out “marketing summits” to help trade marketers. He urged agents to “get behind” Cunard’s “most


ambitious year for UK deployment”, which will see a 54% emand as ‘encouraging’


Farndell reported a growing trend in multigenerational bookings, with summer Alaska sailings “a popular option”. “I was an example of that myself last


year when I went with my kids and in-laws to Alaska,” she said. Princess Cruises’ Yasmin McKechnie


noted “an uplift” in family bookings during the peak season, but said families are “never going to be our number-one market”. “It is more those empty-nesters taking


up the majority of our voyages and I do not think we will see a shift,” she added. Similarly, Seabourn’s Tom Andrews


said the luxury line was “not positioned as a family brand” but wanted to “bust a myth” that its ships are only for adults.


training manager Mike Pack, would be “getting out to as many agents as we can”, in addition to featuring in a Channel 4 TV series later this year. “Hopefully by the end of the year,


we’ll have more [consumers] interested in the brand – and more people visiting travel agents [to ask about us] – and we’ll be able to increase agent confidence,” said McKechnie. Seabourn’s Tom Andrews said there was an


opportunity for “real growth” in the expedition sector, where “myth-busting” was needed to help agents sell luxury. He stressed there were “still opportunities” for UK-based agents, with Seabourn Encore returning to the Mediterranean next year. Andrews added the UK sales team had recently been expanded with a view to “growing market share”.


‘Our support for homeworkers isn’t always quite right’


Carnival UK leaders said they want to “engage more” with homeworkers, admitting they have not always got their approach “quite right yet”. Sales bosses for P&O Cruises,


Cunard, Seabourn, Princess Cruises and Holland America Line urged remote workers to feed back about the support they need. P&O Cruises’ Ruth Venn said:


“Homeworking is a growing trend we are seeing across travel – and I don’t know that we have quite got that right yet. We’ve put some things in place for homeworkers, and we want to engage more.”


travelweekly.co.uk She said initiatives such as


Homeworker Happy Hour and dedicated webinars were “not necessarily hitting the spot”, adding: “If there are things that homeworkers believe we should be doing more of, we would like to hear it.” Princess Cruises’


Iain


Baillie, Cunard


Cunard’s Iain Baillie said the


operator had always tried to make training programmes bespoke to different selling channels and emphasised the importance of “having meaningful discussions” with


travel partners. “It does not always


have to be e-learning,” he


Yasmin McKechnie agreed, stressing sales teams “have to think differently for that audience” by adapting training and resources.


said. “We make sure we tailor


[our training] for homeworkers, independent advisors, retail, OTAs and so forth.”


12 MARCH 2026 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64