A Decade of cruise3sixty April 1, 2014
By Tom Stieghorst Somehow, the Cruise3sixty conference organized by CLIA has been going on for 10 years now. It has evolved into a nice package with several features that are useful to travel agents. They get to hear directly from the industry’s top leaders, attend training sessions and earn accreditation points, network and see an unprecedented number of ships. At this year’s conference, set for April 2 to 6, there will be 24 vessels available for inspection as well as over 50 product and destination seminars. And that’s in addition to the two-day trade show featuring over 300 exhibitors. Registration runs from $159 for CLIA member agents to $239 for those not affiliated with a CLIA agency. A lot has changed since the first Cruise3sixty in the fall of 2005. Not surprisingly, technology marches on. A big announcement from Windstar Cruises that initial year was the addition of full-ship WiFi and the availability of Apple iPod Nanos for use onboard. There is a fourth cruise CEO invited to the panel discussion this year, with MSC Cruises Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago joining the heads of Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. on the rostrum. Ten years ago MSC was hardly in the same league as the other three companies, but what a difference a decade makes. The first Cruise3sixty got off to a bang, following the devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Carnival Corp. had leased three of its ships to the federal government for emergency relief housing, and keynote speaker Jeb Bush, then Florida’s governor, and Carnival Corp. Chairman Micky Arison spent time defending the propriety of the deal. Several members of Congress had asked for an investigation or appointment of an executive to oversee post-Katrina spending. In a joint statement, two senators called the $192 million Carnival contract with FEMA a “grossly overpriced sweetheart deal.” One of the senators was Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, who plans to retire from Congress at the end of this year. The other, a little-known Democrat less than a year removed from the Illinois Senate by the name of Barack Obama, has already moved on.
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