Channel 5 programme boosts bookings for featured lines

The Channel 5 series Cruising with Jane McDonald has led to a direct rise in enquiries and bookings for MSC, Holland America and Uniworld – three of the companies featured in the programme.

“For us, it was staggering,” Steve Williams, sales director of MSC, told Cruise Adviser. “Divina, the ship that Jane sailed on, was our top-selling vessel for a full two weeks. It was destination driven and made people want to pick up the phone and book a Caribbean cruise.

“It was also great to see our key partners acting on the exposure, too. Broadway Travel were proactive and ran an advert in The Sun highlighting Caribbean cruises.”

Channel 5 confirmed that the programme, which aired at 9pm on Friday nights, averaged “a solid two million/ 8.4 per cent share, making Cruising with Jane McDonald the most successful commission of the year so far”.

Holland America, which featured as part of an Alaskan cruise special, has seen treble the number of brochure requests they normally have. The number of passengers booked and con rmed on the week following the programme was up by more than 170 per cent year on year.

The line added that the programme had an “incredible” impact on social media, with Holland America trending fourth on Twitter. They had seen an “huge increase” in search and impressions for Holland America and Alaska since the programme aired.
David Chidley, national sales manager for Uniworld said the luxury river line had 40,000 individuals looking at its UK website in the four days after the show aired.

There were 1,000 requests for quotes and brochures on the Monday morning following the programme, he added.