AS WE move into the new year amid signs of a brightening outlook for the travel industry, the travel trade both in the region and worldwide is looking for ways to retain and grow business to counter direct booking and the convenience and often best-price of web offers.
New destinations and new products are one way to widen the marketplace; and here agents could do no better than look to their doorstep – or home port – where a fleet of cruise ships are now regularly sailing Gulf waters.
MSC Cruises is the latest to arrive, announcing it will make Abu Dhabi its hub for MSC Lirica during the 2011/2012 season, while Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, Costa’s Deliziosa and Luminosa and Aida’s Aida Diva continue to homeport at Dubai for warm-water sailings between December and March.
For the moment, regional sales on these options are small but growing and the weekly departures offer potential for last-minute promotions and visiting friends and relatives seeking excursions – while the lines themselves are proactively offering familiarisation visits and ship tours to ensure the trade can touch and feel the product.
Perhaps the bigger potential lies in outbound sales, with a huge variety of Mediterranean, Asian and Caribbean options now available as well as more unusual Alaskan, Baltic or Indian Ocean itineraries, or even Costa’s new Red Sea winter itinerary.
Knowledge of the type of product available will ensure that agents can confidently move into the cruise market – an area where the majority of bookings are still made through the trade, commission rates are not subject to cuts and luxury sales and repeat business are on the rise.
It’s an area of potential recognised by Arabian Travel Market and this year will see the launch of a dedicated cruise pavilion at the show to provide a focus for both exhibitors and visitors and a platform for the launch of cruise as a key product extension for the regional travel trade.
By Mark Walsh, group exhibitions director ATM