ACE and PSA re-brand to form global voice

As the Association of Cruise Experts and the Passenger Shipping Association re-brand as CLIA UK & Ireland to create a ‘global voice’ for cruise, new director Andy Harmer looks at why the change is necessary.

"1 May 2013 heralds the beginning of a new era for those of us working at ACE and the PSA as together we become CLIA UK & Ireland and I take on the role of the association’s director. 

The cruise industry today is almost unrecognisable from the one I first saw when leaving college in the 1980s.  During that decade there were around 40 ship launches.  Since 2000 we have seen more than 150 new ships joining the world wide fleet and globally, there are now nearly 21 million cruises taken each year – that’s big business. 

As the industry has developed, so have cruise associations around the world and moving forward, these individual associations have agreed to operate under a common organisation, CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association), with a unified structure to serve as the voice of the global cruise industry. Here in the UK and Ireland, we join that association on 1 May. 

The association has been created to provide increased benefits and a unified voice for travel agents, cruise lines and business partners – all of whom contribute to an industry that creates nearly $100 billion in economic impact and more than 753,000 jobs worldwide.

For travel agents, the new association, which has 55 cruise line members, will offer expanded training, shared marketing and promotional activities, greater support and networking opportunities.

We all recognise that the cruise industry’s success and future is directly tied to the travel agent community.  Agents are our leading advocates when it comes to communicating just what a great holiday cruising offers.

We launched a totally new agent training website last year introducing new courses and learning platforms and I’m delighted to see our membership grow.  It really is essential that agents selling cruise holidays are kept up to date with what’s happening and we are using the website, all the social media technology, conferences and expos to ensure our agent members are best placed to take advantage of all the opportunities to grow their sales.

We have also recently launched ‘Cruise Forward’, a new initiative to promote awareness of cruising’s contributions and to engage with all our partners (www.CruiseForward.org). 

We want to share our news and increase public awareness of the industry’s commitment to supporting community partnerships, safeguarding the environment and delivering wide-ranging economic benefits worldwide and this site is full of stories.   

There are challenges ahead – the tough economic climate remains with us and the booking window is getting shorter but there are also great opportunities including the continued, significant growth in river cruising and of course the great value and variety offered by a cruise holiday.

Accreditation distinguishes agents not only from an industry point of view but more importantly from a customer view point and we welcome all our present and future members into the new CLIA organisation."