Clia urges agents to ‘get ready’ for cruise week

Clia UK and Ireland is urging the trade to “get ready” for Clia cruise week, which is set to take place between September 27 and October 5.

The theme of the week is “destination”, and Clia is hoping agents will utilise this to create interesting bespoke events to woo new-to-cruisers.

Clia UK and Ireland director Andy Harmer told TTG: “We’ll be encouraging Clia members to hold an event that is destination-themed, whether that’s a Cruise Baltic afternoon, a Caribbean evening or an Alaskan afternoon.

“Research shows time and again that destination is the key driver for customers booking a cruise holiday so it seemed like the logical thing to focus on this year because it highlights the range of choice that is out there – cruise ships really do go everywhere.”

“The memory of waking up to somewhere different each morning is a powerful message,” he added.

Clia will send out the first of its cruise packs, which will contain product support material, details of the week and ideas and advice on how to hold an event to celebrate this year’s theme, to its agent members this week. These will be followed up with more packs which will be sent out closer to the date.

As part of the destination theme, Harmer said Clia’s destination specialist, who is based in Sydney, would also be conducting a series of webinars for agents, looking at the top 10 destinations, and the top 10 places to view from a cruise ship. Training modules on the Clia website will also be refreshed and “made relevant for this year”, Harmer added.

The cruise association will be urging everyone to help push Clia cruise week by creating a buzz on social media, with the trade encouraged to post pictures of their favourite cruise destination, alongside the hashtag #lovecruise. Harmer said others in the industry would also be getting involved.

“We will be working with may ports, destinations and cruise lines and asking them to upload their view of that cruise port and destination that they are based in with the hashtag, so customers and agents can have a snapshot of what’s on offer.

“We’ll then collate these and put them on our Facebook page – it will be a great showcase for agents talking to customers about cruise.”

Clia cruise week will also no longer be just confined to the UK, but will be a pan-European event with the continent celebrating the week together.

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