More agents going online to book cruises

An increasing proportion of agents are booking cruises online, according to peak season statistics from Complete Cruise Solution.

The umbrella sales organisation for P&O Cruises, Cunard, Princess Cruises and Ocean Village saw an 11% rise in year on year online bookings in January.

CCS said reservations performance targets were exceeded in the month, with 90% of agent bookings being made online.

Call-waiting times have halved in the past 12 months, to 15 seconds on average, it claimed.

The increase in online bookings comes after agents were offered web incentives throughout the Wave peak booking period.

These included double booking discounts, double on board spending money, bonus commission on selected departures, and additional savings for balances paid in full at the time of booking.

Carnival UK sales and customer services director Giles Hawke said: “Online is the future and we are leading the way in encouraging agents to fully embrace all the benefits that come with booking in this way. www.completecruisesolution.com and Amadeus Cruise have the very best deals and up-to-date pricing, so it really does pay to make the most of this service.

“At the same time, we have been able to improve the service we offer to those agents who still prefer to do business with us over the phone” continued Hawke.

“We set ourselves tough targets to ensure that agents get the best possible service and it is very rewarding to see targets not only being met, but being exceeded. We provide a second-to-none service to travel agents and this is certainly testimony to that.”

by Phil Davies