CLIA Cruise Month success

CRUISE Lines International says its second annual Plan a Cruise Month has produced record results in terms of exposure, with a significant increase in online searches for travel agents during the promotional period.

Conducted during Oct, the campaign was strongly supported by CLIA cruise lines and member agents, according to CLIA Australasia and Asia managing director, Joel Katz.

“We saw a record number of hits on our website, including more than 90,000 page views across our dedicated Plan a Cruise Month pages, and encouragingly, we also saw a 50% spike on travel agent searches from the same time last year,” he said.

Social media exposure also exceeded expectations, Katz said, while there was extensive cruise media coverage too, with both trade and consumer publications joining the cruise frenzy.

According to CLIA, agents have seen strong results, citing iTravel’s Kim Wudko as saying the group’s cruise sales were up 15% year- on-year during the month, and a hefty 41% increase since 2015.

Having four different themed weeks covering ocean, river, luxury and expedition cruising also helped segment activity, with Uniworld Boutique River Cruises md Fiona Dalton saying it was particularly helpful being able to “shine a light on why river cruising offers a great value and seamless travel experience” during River Cruise Week.

Katz said CLIA’s Travel Agent Toolkit, which featured marketing assets such as email headers, images, logos, media releases and social media posts, had been well received and was widely used to help CLIA accredited agents make the most of the promotion.