Carnival UK’s five sister brands plan to host 4,000 UK and Ireland agents in 2026 – the highest number in their history.
Sales chiefs for the lines emphasised the importance of getting the trade on board to experience the product first-hand, backed up by increasing regional ship visits and expanding fam trip programmes.
Speaking about the number of agents who have been on board, P&O Cruises associate vice-president of sales and distribution Ruth Venn said: “It is incredible. We were quite shocked when we figured [the total] out. We are proud of that number.”
She said the team had expanded its Shine At Sea education programme to three dates and increased the number of regional ship visits.
Holland America Line associate vice-president of sales and marketing for the UK and Ireland Karen Farndell said the cruise line would host more than 400 agents across two ships in six ports, in addition to hosting its first family day with industry initiative Back In Time For Bed.
She said: “For us, brand awareness still needs to build up in the UK market, so we’re taking opportunities to bring the agents on in Dover where we are homeporting for a second year.”
Princess Cruises sales director for the UK and Europe Yasmin McKechnie said the line plans new “destination experiences” to tie in with its ambition to grow its fly-cruise offering.
She said. “We will fly out three separate groups of agents to a destination for two days where they will have as much onboard experience as possible, while immersing them in the destination.”
This new initiative will run alongside nine ship visits in Southampton and regional ports, as well as two fam trips for 45 agents each, one to the West Coast of the US on Ruby Princess and the other to the Mediterranean on Sun Princess.
Cunard associate vice-president of EMEA sales Iain Baillie said getting agents on board was always “the number-one request” from agents.
The line has doubled its UK fam trip programme with three fam trips from Southampton to the Norwegian fjords and Mediterranean.
“We all agree it’s the best way of getting the agents to really understand our unique propositions,” he said.
Seabourn UK and EMEA sales director Tom Andrews, meanwhile, said the line’s ship visit programme was already oversubscribed only a week after launching and would have to operate on a first-come first-served basis.
He said the line would “maximise” when it has a ship in UK waters, adding: “We’re always getting asked by agent partners to get on board our ships and we are oversubscribed.
“We then have to be creative and do what we can and obviously working around travel agent partners, we’re seeing an increase in webinars as a great way to get in front of them.”
