Cruise industry must work together to unlock cruise potential

This was the conclusion reached by a group of fifty representatives of cruise operators, technology suppliers and travel agents at Amadeus’ annual Cruise Partner Forum in Brighton Brighton, United Kingdom, 31 May, 2005: Amadeus, a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry, held its annual Cruise Partner Forum in Brighton, United Kingdom, on 25 and 26 May. The highlight of the event, a panel discussion on “Electronic distribution trends: present and future” attended by travel agents, cruise operators and technology suppliers alike, concluded that simplifying the reservation process is the secret to unlocking potential growth in the cruise industry. The panellists and audience agreed that working together in partnership is the most effective way to achieve this. Before the panel discussion, William Gibbons, Director of the Passenger Shipping Association, presented figures from the UK market which indicated a potential market of 7.7 million cruise holidays. “The potential in Europe is absolutely enormous,” concluded Mr Gibbons. Automating bookings is key to making the most of this growth and cruise lines are not blind to the cost benefits of moving bookings from the telephone onto an automated booking channel – either via a travel agent booking through an electronic distribution system or over the internet. “Selling a cruise is a complex process. It probably takes four or five phone calls and the cruise lines have set commissions at a level which makes it worth the travel agencies’ while to support those calls,” explains Robert Chamberlin, Global Sales Manager, Amadeus Cruise. Travel agency commissions start at around 10% which is not to be sniffed at when the customer is booking a €5,000 cruise, and airline commissions are at, or close to, zero. “Three years ago, about 25% of cruise bookings were automated,” estimates Mr Chamberlin. “Now that figure is closer to 45% or 50%.” This rapid growth is borne out by Amadeus’ own worldwide cruise bookings which shot up by 94% in 2004. So far this year, Amadeus UK bookings have grown by 150% compared with last year. Amadeus began simplifying cruise bookings with the launch of Amadeus Cruise two years ago. The cruise distribution, marketing and sales tool provides real-time reservations information enabling agents to sell simply and quickly. The booking process is supported by an intuitive, graphical user interface which eliminates the need for agents to learn time consuming cryptic entries. Notes: Amadeus (MAD: AMS) is a global leader in technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry. Its comprehensive data processing centre serves over 72,000 travel agency locations and some 10,000 airline sales offices, totalling around 347,000 points of sale located in over 215 markets worldwide. Through Amadeus, travel agencies and airline offices can make bookings on 95 per cent of the world’s scheduled airline seats. The system also provides access to over 54,100 hotel properties, some 43 car rental companies serving over 30,000 locations, as well as ferry, rail, cruise, tour operators and insurance companies. Amadeus is a leading IT solutions provider to the airline industry; 150 airlines use Amadeus’ Altéa Sell as the sales and reservation system in their offices, to provide passengers with superior and seamless service at optimal cost. Amadeus’ new generation Customer Management Systems include Altéa Plan (inventory management system) and Altéa Fly (departure control system). British Airways, Qantas and Finnair are the first customers to implement these solutions. e-Travel, Amadeus’ e-commerce business unit, is the global leader in online travel technology and corporate travel management solutions. It services travel agencies in 90 countries, and powers the websites of over 300 corporations and more than 60 airlines and hotels. Amadeus is headquartered in Madrid, Spain and quoted on the Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For the year ended 31 December 2004, the company reported revenues of EUR 2,056.7m and net income of EUR 208m. The Amadeus data centre is in Erding (near Munich), Germany and its principal development offices are located in Sophia Antipolis (near Nice), France. The company has 6,000 employees worldwide, representing 95 nationalities. More information about Amadeus is available at: www.amadeus.com