P&O MICE push pays off

P&O Cruises has seen business events inquiry numbers jump 130% year-on-year for the first half of 2015, since launching its push into the sector (BEN 25 Feb), according to Peta Torkington, P&O corporate sales manager.

Speaking to BEN on board Pacific Jewel earlier this week, Torkington said the on-board conference market is a growing niche, particularly in the US.

“About 40% of our breaks are short breaks, it’s very unique to have that amount of short-break cruising and that works very well for the conference market, which is why it’s been so successful.”

P&O is the only cruise line in Australia with a dedicated and locally based MICE team, which has been in operation since Jan.

“If you want to deal with one of our competitors, you have to talk to America,” Torkington said, with the P&O fleet allowing flexible conferencing across various onboard venues.

The cruise line has 39 bookings for conferences confirmed for 2015 and 20 bookings plus one charter confirmed for 2016.

Most of the 2016 bookings are for P&O’s new ships Eden and Aria, which are due in Nov and will have a dedicated conferencing space which can be used for the entire cruise period.

The conference theatre on Eden and Aria will seat 200 and will have two break out rooms which combined also seat up to 200.

“It’s very unique to have, none of the other ships based in Australia have those sort of facilities,” Torkington told BEN.

The P&O team can organise team building activities, such as scavenger hunts or create valueadd packs with incentives and for the four night cruises, they can pre-book private shore excursions.

“It’s something a bit different, hotels can get a bit boring and you want to encourage people to come along and participate.

“Also, because you’re on a cruise ship, people can’t kind of disappear,” Torkington added.