FRONTLINE
perfect for no one. For example, MSC has six-berth cabins on the larger ships, which cannot be easily booked on other systems. People can change their dining times, add excursions, speciality dining, drinks and internet packages on our system using a monthly payment plan. We also have a ‘no phone calls’ policy, so everything is online. Plus, we do not charge any fees for altering or cancelling a booking.
Q. How do you find your customers? We have spent years organically building up our Facebook pages, and we do get customers from them, but we are very careful not to bombard people with posts. Word of mouth is the biggest way we get business, especially with MSC Yacht Club customers, where it is a smaller part of the ship and you see the same people quite frequently.
Chris Hughes
The software expert tells Ella Sagar about setting up a cruise agency specialising in just one line and his goal to sail on every ship in its fleet
Q. How did you get into travel? I took my first cruise in 2009 and got absolutely hooked. I have done at least 50 cruises since then, mostly with MSC Cruises. My wife and I started Facebook pages for MSC passengers to share their experiences, and then decided to sell cruises ourselves. We set up our own agency, Simply Cruises, and joined Barrhead Travel’s Brilliant Travel division as a managed services travel partner. My background is in software and I have built up several internet companies and sold them over time. I wanted to use that knowledge to remove a lot of the friction with the online booking process for cruises.
Q. What is different about your approach? We are the only agency that only sells MSC in the UK. We love sailing with them and selling them as they are a family-owned company with a friendly way of doing business. We built our own custom system that we are constantly adding to. Above all, we want to be transparent with our customers. Everyone in cruise uses one of two systems, which work for everyone, but are
28 19 FEBRUARY 2026
Q. What was your most memorable booking? We had one customer who booked a cruise on MSC World Europa from Barcelona. They got so excited about it, they started telling family members and it went from one booking for one cabin to 12 bookings for multiple cabins. What they loved was that they could link all the cabins together and find them all on our system, so they were located close to each other. Another couple upgraded eight cruises they had already booked to Yacht Club after trying it once. That product is hands down the best out of Southampton.
Q. What is trending in bookings right now? We are finding people are booking longer voyages than the standard seven nights, and the booking window is lengthening. People are securing Christmas 2026 and 2027 on MSC Preziosa already. While the industry does push last minute quite a lot, we are finding a lot of enquiries coming through for as far as February 2028 for the new ship MSC World Atlantic.
Q. What are your favourite destinations? I absolutely love Norway at any time of year. I’ve been there by ship and I’ve flown too. I even went to Bergen for 24 hours to spend New Year’s Eve there. We’re very lucky to be able to sail to Norway from Southampton. I love photography, and I want to take pictures of everything while I’m there. The culture, the people, the weather, it is all absolutely fabulous.
Q. What are your goals for the future? We have added fly-cruise bookings and want to have our own packaging as well at some point. We are also in the process of incorporating Explora Journeys into our platform. Many people were booking those cruises while on board on MSC Yacht Club. Every Explora cruise booking we have seen has huge repeats, so it makes a lot of sense to offer that on our website. Next year, or maybe the year after, I want to do an unofficial fleet inspection and try to sail on all 23 MSC ships. It is going to take a bit of time to do and coordinate the logistics.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SPECIALISE IN SELLING MSC?
As big as the fleet gets, MSC retains its super-friendly
feeling on board. That includes the people they employ on board and on shore. I love
the fact MSC has ships all the way from the Lyrica Class up to the World Class, and every ship and voyage is always full of surprises. We have grown our business hugely with
them. October was fantastic, with our best-ever opening day for a season launch. We did £100,000 in sales in the first 30 minutes after sales opened for summer 2027, and more than £500,000 by the end of the day. The beauty of MSC is there is
always a new season or new ship being launched. People thought we were crazy when
we started, but we have made a business model that works. My advice for anyone getting into travel is to specialise in something, rather than trying to cover everything. If you try to cover all bases, you will fade into the background like everyone else, but if you are specialist in trekking, or
honeymoons or rail holidays, or whatever it may be, then your niche business will
always do well, whether the industry is doing well or not.
Chris on board MSC Euribia
travelweekly.co.uk
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