December 2014 | CLIA UK & Ireland Informer
www.cruiseexperts.org
FRIDA Y 2014
12 DEC EMBER
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Meet the Fleet
New Online at Cruiseexperts.org
Photos: Dan Burn-Forti/Save the Children
In partnership with
River Cruise Convention 2014
A warm welcome to our December 2014 Informer – keeping you updated with everything CLIA and cruise related.
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A few photos from the Amsterdam event
Sales Guides, Webinars, & River Resources
November was quite a month – we held a social media seminar at WTM, met lots of travel agents in Manchester, Belfast, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Norwich at various CLIA events, attended the Travel Counsellors Conference, and hosted a record 250 delegates at our River Cruise Convention in Amsterdam!
From our Cruise Line Members
Just as importantly we have launched a whole range of resources online at cruiseexperts.org giving you just enough time to get used to them before WAVE season strikes in the New Year.
Pete’s Training
I hope that you have had a fantastic year, and that you are looking forward to the new year. We hope that it is a healthy, prosperous and happy one. Thank you for your on-going support, and for everything that you do for the cruise industry.
Online This Month
Join Princess Cruises this December and support The River Cruise Line’s Mo’vember
Cruising the Amazon by ocean ship or river ship
Andy Harmer Director
www.cruiseexperts.org
CLIA UK & Ireland Informer
www.cruiseexperts.org
CLIA UK & Ireland launches a revolution in the way that you find the right ship for the right customer! Consisting of detailed guides to all ocean cruise ships CLIA UK & Ireland has launched an industry first: Fully Searchable Meet the Fleet. Using Meet the Fleet you can search for the ship that best suits the needs of your customers, compare ships side by side, and enjoy any video contact or in-depth information about each and every ship. So, if you’re looking for an adult only ship, for example, with a capacity of less than 2,000 passengers, that includes a sushi restaurant, the CLIA UK & Ireland Meet the Fleet is the only place that allows you to find just that. With more than 200 individual searchable fields, for the very first time you can tailor the results to find the information that matters. Meet The Fleet has more information and stats being added to it all the time but we wanted to let you know that it was live on cruiseexperts.org and can be found under the “CRUISE TOOLBOX” tab once logged into the Members Area.
You can find Meet the Fleet online now at
www.cruiseexperts.org
Our River Cruise Convention Gallery...
For more photos, please check out our Flickr Gallery
CliaUkIreland
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CLIA UK & Ireland Informer
Online This Month at www.cruiseexperts.org We have been working hard this year to add even more invaluable resources to our website to give you access to not just world-class training, but also resources that will help you sell more cruises. Sales Guides: magazine style content exclusively written for CLIA members that takes you through river cruising, cruise destinations and cruise holidays. Our Sales Guides are updated monthly, and are archived for your viewing pleasure! Selling Cruising
Mainstream Cruising THIS
Selling Rivers
What’s New
MONTH
Selling Destinations
Canada and New England
CLIA Webinar in December
Profit Island Your guide to extra cruise revenues
rt o pp
O f o ea
S
Route to Success
y t i n u
Commiss
esire
TravelCube is a retail only booking site, connecting retail and online travel agents to tens of thousands of accommodation options, tour guide and transfer services, unique experiences, excursions, attraction tickets and restaurants, as well as destination information and advice. TravelCube’s reliable technology provides unrivalled content at the best possible prices. www.travelcube.com
Easy Bay
of D
Wednesday 10 December - 9.30am
Revenue Point
nd
SIGN UP
La
For a selection of hand-picked hotels, sightseeing and transfers go to…
travelcube.com/cruise
Two new River Resources available now on cruiseexperts.org
The River Cruise Bulletin breaks down the news between New Vessels, Refurbishments, New Itineraries & Product Updates to give you a handy, concise overview of the latest from the sector. The River Cruise 2015 Guide produced by Cruise Trade News is a perfect resource to share with your customers...
Both can be accessed and downloaded from the CLIA website - just login and they are available from the Members Hub...
hotels
River Cruise Bulletin
brought to you by Jane Archer on behalf of CLIA UK & Ireland
Jane Archer is the UK’s leading cruise journalist writing for trade titles including Travel Weekly and Cruise Trade News. She is also the Daily Telegraph Travel’s cruise expert.
New Ships scenic tours will be Making a sPlash when it launches two new vessels next year.
The 169-passenger Scenic Opal and Jasper, which take the fleet to 12 river cruise boats, will have the first swimming pools in the Scenic fleet. The pools will be on the top deck so passengers can enjoy sun and scenery as they sail. Scenic’s river cruises are all-inclusive of travel, transfers, drinks, shore excursions and gratuities. contact: 0808 102 0102 www.scenictours.co.uk
MyanMar’s star shows no sign of fading, with aPt lining uP to launch river cruises on the
ayeyarwady. The cruises, to be sold under the company’s Travelmarvel brand, start in January 2016 on the Princess Panhwar, a new vessel with 36 cabins and suites. There is one itinerary - a 17-day Majestic Burma voyage from Yangon to Mandalay that includes excursions to pagodas, monasteries and U Bein Bridge, believed to be the longest teak bridge in the world. A three-day extension to Inle Lake is also available. contact: 0800 046 3002; www.aPtouring.co.uk aMerican cruise lines has chosen aMerican eagle as the naMe for the new Paddlewheel river boat it is launching on the
MississiPPi.
croisieuroPe is launching a Paddlewheel boat on the elbe, a river Plagued by such low water in suMMer that often vessels cannot Move and Passengers have to be coached between cities.
riviera travel is taking another leaf out of the literary world next year with the launch of the new 140-Passenger charles dickens. A sister to William Shakespeare, which entered service in 2014, the vessel is the second river cruise boat joining the Riviera fleet in 2015, with the Jane Austen due to start sailing next May. Both will be cruising the Rhine and Danube. Riviera is also dipping a toe in the Douro, Portugal, next year with a selection of one-week cruises roundtrip from Porto in July and August on the chartered Douro Spirit. Contact: 01283 744370 www.rivieratravel.co.uk
Simply head to cruiseexperts.org and head for the Members Hub...
The vessel, which is being built in the US, will hold 150 passengers and be decked out in Victorian style with plenty of wood and brass. Facilities include a dining room, a Mark Twainthemed library and chart room, a Sky Lounge serving all-day refreshments and the Paddlewheel Lounge, where passengers can watch the big wheel turning. Contact: 001 800 814 6880 www.americancruiselines.com
Refurbishment
The 80-passenger Elbe Princesse, due to enter service in spring 2016, is a sister to a vessel the French company is launching on the Loire in April 2015. However, where the Loire Princesse has a side-mounted paddlewheel, her Elbe counterpart will have a wheel on the back so she can fit through locks. Cruises, from the heart of Berlin to Prague, are expected to take 10 days. Contact: 020 8328 1281 www.croisieurope.co.uk
us oPerator tauck is adding the nearly-new 118-Passenger river boat esPrit to its fleet next year. The company ordered it for delivery in 2010 but took a step back during the economic crisis so it has been operated by another company since its launch. However, Tauck is now eyeing growth (it has just opened a UK office to kick-start sales on this side of the Pond and has another two river boats on order for 2016) so this winter the vessel will be refurbished in Tauck style and join the company’s fleet in early 2015. Key features include suites that measure 300 square foot, a dining room and casual bistro restaurant. Contact: 0800 810 8020 www.tauck.co.uk
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River Cruise Line’s Movember Mo’ket!
The men of the River Cruise Line have gone moustache mad for Movember, with Sales and Mo’keting Director Steve Goodenough and Sales & Business Development Mo’nager Tim Fleming leading the challenge to grow upper-lip hair to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK. River Cruise Line’s Mo’keting Director Steve Goodenough says, “When we heard that Market Harborough was officially changing its name to Mo’ket Harborough for the month of November we were easily persuaded to join in and raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. Despite various comments and jokes around the office and whilst out and about at meetings.....as well as at home....8 of us in the company managed to stay the distance. We are still collecting sponsorship but hope the final total to be close to £500, and all further donations are welcome.” Now Movember is over the River Cruise Line team are now need some extra support so please take a look at this line-up of The River Cruise Line Moustachios! and give generously. Thanks in anticipation of your support for this worthy cause.
CLIA Training Page
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Cruising the Amazon by ocean ship or river ship... By Peter Kollar, CLIA Australasia
The Amazon is by most measures the longest and largest river in the world – which during the wet season the Amazon can be as wide as 30 miles or more. Ocean cruise lines will move south or north along the east coast of South America and move into the mouth of the Amazon. Some stretches of river are so wide here that there will be times when you won’t see the banks of the river. The ports of call along the way to the final port of Manaus are definitely interesting, and it is a great way to get the ‘Amazon feel’, and cruise lines will run smaller excursions to give that bespoke travel experience. The advantage ocean cruise lines have is the same they have over any type of travel - that other ports of call along the coast are part of the experience and there is more diversity in the overall holiday. River cruises tend to concentrate more towards the west of the content, around the Peruvian basin of the river. Here waterways narrow and spread like tiny neurons that cover the brain of the Amazon. It’s remote, primitive, and definitely a more personalised experience with one of nature’s great wonders. This is why if the Amazon is the key feature of your client’s lifetime bucket list, this type of cruise will immerse them into an untouched world in which they become one with the pulsating lifeline of nature. Overall, it comes down to your client and what their needs are, both have their very strong positives, let alone the natural difference between the two forms of holiday. When is the best time to go? A year in the life of the Amazon is broadly split into two seasons – High Water and Low Water – but which one is the best time to travel? This article is continued in the Members Hub at cruiseexperts.org For more information on South America you can head to the CLIA Discovers series in the Learning Academy of the CLIA website.
Meet The Fleet comprehensive guide to the worlds cruise ships
29
584
SHIPS USE BRITISH POUND STERLING AS THEIR PRIMARY ONBOARD CURRENCY,
WITH 161 USING UNITED STATES DOLLARS
41 35
65 1000 have over
ultra luxury ships
CREW
onboard
have solariums
41
small
42
medium
139
large
BOUTIQUE
SHOPS
168 OFFER SUITES
15
offer SINGLE cabins
9
offer
ICE skating onboard
HAVE theatres
21
125
AND NURSERIES
ONBOARD
43 OFFER JUST BABYSITTING
while
2000 5
18 have celebrity tie-ins
113
222
offer in cabin
BABYSITTING
ships have received a refit since
23
70
ships have nurseries
SHIPS OFFER
ships have launched since
2013
SPECIALITY RESTAURANTS WITH COVER CHARGES 168 OFFER SUITES
ships have SUSHI restaurants,
7
offering other
Japanese-style restaurants
ships allow SMOKING in designated areas only, while
0
180 11
ships on the system have outright banned smoking. cruiseexperts.org.uk
SHIPS HAVE
7
146 don’t provide ANY FACILITIES FOR
TODDLERS
offer
bakeries and pastry shops
KIDS FACILITIES, CAN PROVIDE THEM DEPENDING ON THE ITINERARY
54 capacity
ships have a passenger of over
3000