Council Celebrates the Best in Australasian Cruising

The cream of the Australian and New Zealand cruising industry was feted at the International Cruise Council Australasia’s second annual awards dinner, held in Sydney on the weekend (January 21, 2006).

Designed to recognise the top performers of the local cruising industry, the awards night also marked the Council’s 10^th anniversary of promoting cruising to the travel industry and consumers in Australia and New Zealand.

Cruise Council General Manager Karen Christensen said this year’s expansion of the awards to include seven categories and the New Zealand industry reflected the steady growth of cruising in Australasia in recent years.

The award winners in each category were:

¨       Best Cruise Consultant in Australia – Christa Kinnear, Phil Hoffmann Travel, Adelaide

¨       National Cruise Agency of the Year in Australia – Travelworld Newcastle

¨       New Member Achievement Award – Harvey World Travel Cherrybrook

¨       Best Consumer Promotion – Cruise Collection Adelaide

¨       The Neil Frazer Annual Award – Outstanding Contribution by an ndividual   to the Australian Cruise Industry – Sarina Bratton, Founder and Managing Director of Orion Expedition Cruises Pty Ltd

¨       Best Cruise Consultant in New Zealand – Kay Rogers, United Travel at the Mount

¨       National Cruise Agency of the Year in New Zealand – McIntosh United.

Ms Christensen said the Council had been overwhelmed with entries for the awards and attributed the strong response to growing agent awareness of the value cruise sales could add to their business.

“The transformation of our industry during the past decade has been amazing. Each year, more and more travel agents are focusing on cruising and are achieving great success with the support of our 21 member cruise lines. It’s fantastic to see,” Ms Christensen said.

Cruise Council Chairman Steve Odell said it was fitting that on its 10^th anniversary the Cruise Council was able to honour cruise industry pioneer and the Council’s first Chairman, Sarina Bratton, with the Neil Frazer Award for outstanding contribution by an individual to the industry.

“Sarina has shown great vision and determination in the face of risk and many obstacles, yet has remained totally dedicated to the development of the Australian cruising industry in the past 20 years.”

More than 330 industry members attended the awards, held at the Sheraton On The Park in Sydney.

The gala event attracted strong sponsorship support, including gold sponsor Air New Zealand, silver sponsors British Airways, Avalon Waterways and Digital Mechanics, individual sponsor Vacations & Travel magazine and supporting sponsors Travel Bulletin, Travelvax, The Australian, Nestle, Road to Mandalay Cruises, Silversea and Cruise Brokers.