Make the most of our summer of opportunity

I’m strongly of the opinion that around every corner there’s an opportunity.  We might have to look for it on occasions, but it’s always there.  At Clia we are always adding new learning programmes for our travel agent members and we are also offering new innovations with our recently announced ‘Summer of Opportunity’.  

We are holding a range of events designed to help you boost your sales of cruise holidays through increased knowledge and expertise of the cruise sector. Events range from Cruise Sales Masterclasses to Expos on a variety of ships in different ports around the UK: Dover, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Southampton and Newcastle, so hopefully a port near you.

We are very fortunate within our industry to have so many different opportunities to both learn and experience the product.  Cruise lines are very supportive in providing training, hosting fam trips and working with Clia through our accredited online Learning Academy and supporting the many events we hold over the course of the year.

As you will have gathered, I’m a pretty optimistic type of character and my optimism for 2016 has been reinforced after reading that there was a 12% year-on-year increase in travel agent and tour operator turnover in 2015. That’s a pretty impressive figure with indications suggesting that this year also looks promising, particularly for the cruise sector, despite a number of distractions, not least of which is the EU Referendum on June 23.

But before we go to the polls, we will see two brand new ships visiting Southampton, Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas in April and then Harmony of Seas in May, which at 33 centimetres longer than Allure of the Seas, makes it the largest cruise ship in the world.  She is also taking centre stage at our Clia Conference, which itself is the largest travel agent event of its kind in Europe!  It’s inevitable that these ships will attract attention and we should use this opportunity to promote both the resort style ships and the many others that offer a very different type of experience, whether that’s river, niche, expedition, luxury or contemporary, as there really is a cruise style for everyone.

The team at Clia is committed to helping you grow your sales by providing excellent training and inspirational events and I hope that we may cross paths as you take advantage of the 2016 ‘Summer of Opportunity’.

For further information visit cruiseexperts.org