CLIA UK Informer Winter 2016 by Andy Harmer

Winter 2016

Informer WIN

An Industry worth of prizes

CRUISE360 Tell us your ‘Cruise Moment’ - the very moment you fell in love with cruising or realised that cruising was the perfect choice for a customer’s next holiday.

ARRIVES IN EUROPE! COPENHAGEN

CLIA has announced the launch of Cruise360 in Europe for the first time in 2017.

The inaugural European event will be held in Copenhagen on 9th September 2017. The three-day event will combine multiple ship visits with organised local excursions in Copenhagen. The event will also feature keynote conference sessions, two evening events and brand new for this event, the ‘Cruise Sales Masterclass’ learning programmes. Registration opens on December 1st at cruiseexperts.org

@CLIAUK

CLIAEurope

CLIA UK Ireland Winter 2016 Informer

A really warm welcome to the Winter Informer from CLIA – and who can believe that we are already at the end of another year in the life of cruise! We have been absolutely spoilt by the arrival of new ships coming into the UK this year – including Ovation of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, Carnival Vista and Koningsdam – and many more besides. Indeed, there are 28 new ships on our oceans and rivers this year alone. We should never measure the success of our industry by how many new ships are launched of course, because so much of what we do carries across every ship; every sailing and every day. We are by far and away the most exciting, innovative and creative sector of travel because of three central reasons: 1. We not only visit some of the world’s finest destinations, we also visit multiple destinations in only one holiday whilst unpacking once. A unique sales point! 2. The service levels on all of our ships is not just superior – but it covers every aspect of the holiday experience, from clean rooms, to service in our restaurants and bars, to our shore excursions and much more besides 3. With over 60 cruise line members of CLIA and with nearly 500 cruise ships each with their own personality – there is a huge diversity of incredible experiences available. There really is a cruise for everyone! Of course keeping you up to date with the changing industry is only part of what we do. We offer accredited training, unique resources and inspirational events all created just for you! Thank you for your support of CLIA, and we look forward to working with you in 2017 to help get more people to cruise!

Andy Harmer VP | OPERATIONS & DIRECTOR, UK & IRELAND

Where’s Andy been recently? TRAVEL WEEKLY LUNCH HOSTED BY FRANK DEL RIO along with the leadership team from Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises

P&O CRUISES EVENT HOSTED BY THE FAB STEPHEN MULHERN

and showcasing the new entertainment on board the P&O Cruises fleet

ANDY SPOKE AT THE TRAVEL NETWORK GROUP CRUISE CONFERENCE

CLIA UK Ireland Winter 2016 Informer

With all of the great travel pictures and stories you share with us via #MyCLIA on Twitter and through your Greatest Journey blogs and Top 10 lists, it is sometimes easy to forget that CLIA host a more academic opportunity for you all in the shape of the only industry cruise Learning Academy! Designed to offer you the opportunity to boost your knowledge and skills with a wide selection of modules on the customer experience, destinations, marketing, sales techniques and the cruise sectors cruiseexperts.org has a Learning Academy with something for everyone! Each module is short, interactive and designed to cover the information you will best need to help you increase your cruise sales. The modules are also accredited by City & Guilds so your achievement is more than just recognition by the cruise industry - it is recognition by the UK's leading vocational education supplier too. As you work your way up through the levels of accreditation from "Accredited" status all the way through to our ultimate "Master" level, you will receive a pin badge and certificate to confirm your achievements, and your agency's listing becomes prioritised in our "Find a Local Agent" search. Remember - knowledge is power, and the Learning Academy is available to all CLIA members!

WEDNESDAY 24 - FRIDAY 26 MAY 2017

LIMITED AVAILABILITY REMAINS The CLIA Conference will take place on Wednesday 24, Thursday 25 and Friday 26 May in Southampton and will showcase Cunard’s newly remastered Queen Mary 2 together with Royal Caribbean International’s Navigator of the Seas. As we have seen over the past 10 years, the CLIA Conference is a fantastic example of how the whole cruise industry comes together to learn more, make new work colleagues and share best practice. CLIA Conference champions the cruise holiday, celebrating the huge variety of opportunities it provides. Working together we can spread the word to more people who have yet to cruise, and together our voice is louder. We hope you will join us next May!

QUEEN MARY 2 Wednesday 24 May

CONFERENCE & GALA DINNER Thursday 25 May

NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS Friday 26 May

On Wednesday 24 May you will enjoy the CLIA Conference Opening Ceremony featuring special guests onboard the newly remastered Queen Mary 2. Following our land-based Conference & Networking Day and Gala Dinner on Thursday, Friday 26 May will present the fabulous Navigator of the Seas for a themed ship visit and the Closing Ceremony featuring special guests.

Limited tickets remain - Book online at cruiseexperts.org CLIA Member Travel Agent rate £100 + VAT

‘PLAN A CRUISE MONTH’ TWITTER ACTIVITY HITS OVER 11 MILLION PEOPLE

WHERE’S HOT IN CRUISING 18%

56%

NORTH AMERICA

Our first draft Twitter stats for PACM 2016 show the following: Between 15 Sep and 31 Oct we measured 8,240 relevant Tweets from 2,177 users with a total potential reach of 11,792, 450

PLAN A CRUISE MONTH

EUROPE

WHERE’S HOT IN CRUISING As voted for in our Twitter poll

Canada Canada Hawaii Hawaii Maui Hawaii Mexican Riviera Mexico Alaska USA Denali USA Florida USA New York USA

Tallin Estonia European River Cruise Europe Jewels of the Rhine Europe France France Giverny and Monets Gardens France Marseille France Sanary France Northumberland Great Britain UK Great Britain Delos Greece Greece Greece Santorini Greece Amsterdam Holland Pompeii Italy Rome Italy Tuscany Italy Venice Italy Kotor Montenegro Norwegian Fjords Norway Olden Norway St Petersburg Russia Barcelona Spain St Helena St Helena Stockholm Sweden Sweden Sweden

18%

CARIBBEAN

Antigua Caribbean Bahamas Caribbean Barbados Caribbean Caribbean Caribbean Caribbean Caribbean Dominica Caribbean Grand Cayman Caribbean Grand Turk Caribbean Jamaica Caribbean Puerto Rico Caribbean St Maarten Caribbean St Thomas Caribbean

1% OCEAN

We are still collating information from the other platforms we used and we will share that information in due course – but in the meantime CLIA and the whole industry would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who Tweeted during the October Campaign – keep on utilising social media to help spread the incredible experiences that cruising offers!

4% ASIA

Asia Asia Cambodia/Vietnam Asia Myanmar Asia

SOUTH AMERICA

AFRICA

AUSTRALASIA & PACIFIC ISLANDS

Ullapool

Orkney

Bristol

Liverpool

Portsmouth

Southamp

ton

Dover

Port of Ty n

Travel Agent Research Panel As CLIA member travel agents you are at the heart of the industry thanks to your work with cruise customers, in selling destinations and cruise itineraries and in selling the majority of the cruise holidays taken by UK and Irish guests. You may also know that CLIA conducts on-going research projects that are of importance to the cruise industry – and that we conduct research to help us to understand key market trends that are impacting our travel agent community.

Would you like to participate in one of our CLIA research projects, with the chance to win prizes? If so, we will add you to our Agent Research Panel?

YOUR INDUSTRY NEEDS YOU! SIGN UP HERE

All we will ask you to do is to complete a simple online questionnaire three or four times a year that will ask you about some of the key trends that you are seeing. The result will be an industry report that identifies key trends as identified by our travel agent members, and this will be an important contribution to the industry staying one step ahead and continuing to grow. All answers will of course be kept confidential and we will not share any individual input. As a member of our Agent Research Panel we will hold a draw after each round and you could receive one of two £125 Amazon gift cards…. PLUS you will receive an ADVANCE copy of the report. We need your help – to make the results statistically useful we need enough travel agent contributors – so please help us gain valuable insights into the UK cruise industry and join the panel. The more the merrier – and not only will you get useful information back, you could also win one of those gift cards.

This year has been a very positive year for river cruise and has seen an 8 percent rise in the number of UK passengers and to recognise those that made this happen, Cruise Lines International Association celebrated with an awards ceremony at the annual CLIA River Cruise Conference in Amsterdam on the 20th and 21st November. “In 2017, the river cruise market has a great opportunity for further growth from UK travellers,” explained Giles Hawkes, CLIA Deputy Chair and CEO of Avalon Waterways UK. “With more options for different styles of river cruising than ever before. We are grateful to our travel agent partners who have been recognised by these inaugural awards for their contribution to that growth in the popularity of river cruising.” Now in its sixth annual year, the CLIA River Cruise Excellence Awards took place on Saturday 19th November. Hosted on board Tauck’s Grace, the event bought together senior cruise industry figures, agents and journalists for an evening of celebration. CLIA’s very own Andy Harmer and Travel Weekly’s Lucy Huxley presented the awards which were sponsored by a number of river cruise line operators including AmaWaterways, Avalon Waterways, French America Line, Pandaw, Uniworld and A-ROSA. Following the awards the official after party took place on board Emerald Waterways Emerald Dawn. Andy Harmer, VP of Operations and Director of UK & Ireland said, “It is tremendously important to recognise the individuals and businesses who make a contribution to the success of the industry – and we are delighted to be working with the whole river cruise industry in creating the first Awards specifically for this sector”.

CLIA UK Ireland Winter 2016 Informer THE EIGHT WINNERS ARE: Best River Cruise Newcomer Reader Offers Ltd Best Marketing Promotion of River Cruise - Online The Cruise Village River Cruise Ambassador of the Year Margaret McCorriston, Planet Cruise Best Overall Performance North River Voyages (WTH UK)

Best Marketing Promotion of River Cruise - Retail Baldwins Travel CLIA River Cruise Agent of the Year Juliet Archer, Blue Water Holidays Best Overall Performance South Iglu Cruise / Planet Cruise Best Marketing Promotion of River Cruise - Homeworker Cruise.co.uk

CLIA UK Ireland Winter 2016 Informer

Upcoming Webinars Find all past recordings in the CLIA Cruise Daily As we approach the end of our Autumn Webinar season, we have hosted a fantastic variety of updates from our river, ocean and destination partners - bringing you both a product update and a contact for you to direct your sales enquiries to. Thank you for joining us over the season! Log in to cruiseexperts.org and head to the CLIA Cruise Daily where we offer a link to our Webinar Library. Check out our upcoming WEBINAR UPDATES - Free to CLIA Members:

Azamara Club Cruises

Pandaw

Singapore Tourism Board

G Adventures - Galapagos & Sailing

Azamara Club Cruises

CroisiEurope

Wednesday 11 January 2017 - 9.30am

Wednesday 25 January 2017 - 9.30am

Wednesday 15 February 2017 - 9.30am

Wednesday 18 January 2017 - 9.30am

Wednesday 8 February 2017 - 9.30am

Wednesday 22 February 2017 - 9.30am

Burj Khalifa

Shooting like a gleaming needle into the sky, at 829 metres high the tallest building in the world needs no introduction. Visitors can take afternoon tea or sundowners at At.Mosphere on level 122, or head to the observation decks on levels 125 and 148. You’ll whizz up in an elevator in record speed before enjoying views across the city, and don’t forget to stop off in the gift shop – the mini LEGO Burj Khalifa is a quirky souvenir. Book tickets in advance online, from Dhs125 and Dhs95 for children. Burjkhalifa.ae

Dubai welcomes you with year round sunshine, warm waters and endless desert landscapes merging with its iconic skylines. The Dubai Cruise Terminals are centrally located and just minutes from the beach and rest of the action, so your adventure can begin before you set sail or continue as soon as you disembark. Dubai is the “Cruise Hub of the Region” serving as a winter home port for 6 international cruise lines and turnaround destination for over 22 world’s leading cruise lines. Simplified Immigration procedures, state-of-theart cruise terminals with tourist friendly infrastructure and facilities will entice the visitors. Embarking on an Arabian Gulf or an international cruise from Dubai will be an experience you will never forget. The itineraries can be as short as 5, 7, 12 or 14 nights and even extend to an exciting world cruise. Be inspired at visitdubai.com

It’s not called “The Centre of Now” for nothing, with some of Dubai’s biggest attractions on Downtown’s doorstep, not to mention wow-worthy hotels and serious shopping. The Downtown Slide

The Dubai Trolley

This exciting (and free) slide is suitable for all ages, and is seven metres tall at its highest point. Located in Burj Plaza it offers a fun experience for riders, as they whizz for 19 metres before landing on a soft mat. And don’t be put off by the fact it’s metal – innovating technology ensures that it’s cool all year round. Open from 4pm until 1am.

The pretty San Francisco-style tram will soon run for seven kilometres along Mohammed Bin Rashid Boulevard and around surrounding areas, taking in Burj Khalifa, Souk Al Bahar, The Dubai Fountain, The Dubai Mall and The Opera District. For now, it spans just over one kilometre and you can hitch a ride between The Dubai Mall and Vida Downtown Dubai. Emaar.com

Dubai Aquarium You might not expect to find penguins, otters and a King Croc just metres from designer stores, but Dubai Aquarium is rather special. The 10-million-litre tank is home to thousands of aquatic animals representing more than 140 species, including sharks and rays, and you can see them all by walking through the 48-metre tunnel. Want to get closer? There’s also a glass-bottom boat, encounter experiences, and the chance to dive in the tank itself. Prices start from Dhs100, and entry is free for under 3s. Thedubaiaquarium.com

COPENHAGEN

SATURDAY 9 - MONDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2017 OPTIONAL LUXURY CRUISE MASTERCLASS DAY ON-BOARD SEVEN SEAS EXPLORER FRIDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

CLIA has announced the launch of Cruise360 in Europe for the first time in 2017. The event is already a regular part of the travel industry in North America and Australasia and attracts cruise lines, travel agents and media to a single immersive event which focusses on giving delegates practical advice and support to grow their cruise sales. The inaugural European event will be held in Copenhagen on 9th September 2017. The three-day event will combine multiple ship visits with organised local excursions in Copenhagen. The event will also feature keynote conference sessions, two evening events and brand new for this event, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Cruise Sales Masterclassâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; learning programmes. The Masterclass courses will provide information and new skills for agents to enhance their cruise sales. The course themes will include, selling destinations, marketing and sales techniques. The main programme starts on 9th September, and concludes on 11th September. An optional ship visit is available on 8th September for agents arriving in Copenhagen the day before. Registration opens on December 1st at cruiseexperts.org

CLIA UK Ireland Winter 2016 Informer

COPENHAGEN

Provisional CLIA Cruise360 Copenhagen Schedule DAY 1 – SATURDAY 9 SEPTEMBER

Onboard Regal Princess | Local excursion | Informal evening event

DAY 2 – SUNDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

Onboard Norwegian Getaway | Local excursion | Gala Dinner

DAY 3 – MONDAY 11 SEPTEMBER

Trade Fair with “Selling Cruise Masterclass”

NEW

The Masterclass courses will provide information and new skills for agents to enhance their cruise sales. The course themes will include, selling destinations, marketing and sales techniques. Destination courses - Helping you sell some of the most up and coming cruise destinations Marketing - From social media to digital marketing Sales techniques - Increase your conversion and grow your sales

OPTIONAL PRE-DAY: FRIDAY 8 SEPTEMBER

“Luxury Cruise Masterclass” Onboard Seven Seas Explorer

Early booking agents have the opportunity to sign up for a pre-day Luxury Cruise Masterclass onboard Regent Seven Seas Explorer.

CLIA Cruise Excellence Awards 2016 ANNOUNCING OUR 2016 SHORTLIST The 2016 Awards will be announced at the close of the CLIA Cruise Forum, being held at Beaumont Estate in Windsor, on December 13. Our congratulations go to all nominated agencies and we can't wait to celebrate with you all. In addition to the four categories with a shortlist, we have other awards without shortlists and with awards being presented to individuals who have championed the cruise industry and excelled in their field of work. ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

CRUISE INNOVATION AWARD

HIGH STREET TRAVEL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

CLIA RISING STAR AWARD

Cruise118 Cruise.co.uk Cruise Direct Cruise Nation Iglu Cruise

Baldwins Travel Barrhead Travel Kuoni Miles Morgan Travel Thomas Cook Trailfinders

Cruise 1st Cruise.co.uk The Travel Network Group TUI Virgin Holidays Passion for Cruises Infinity Cruises Forever Cruises

Also being awarded on the night

TRAVEL AGENT BUSINESS OF THE YEAR CRUISE MANAGER OF THE YEAR CRUISE ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRUISE COMMUNITY

THE HIGHEST RATED RIVER CRUISE SHIPS

RIVER CRUISES