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Norwegian invites agents to bring cruise virgins onto new ship
Norwegian Cruise Line is to invite hundreds of travel partners to bring clients who’ve never cruised before to spend a night on its new ship, Escape, when she arrives in Southampton in October.
Francis Riley, senior vice president international, said more than half of the guests agents and operators had brought to view Getaway at her UK debut had gone on to book a cruise.
"To grow our business we have to bring in people who are new to cruise," said Riley. "Norwegian is the cruise line best placed to do this because of our Freestyle dining concept which gives people more freedom than traditional cruises.
In total, Norwegian will invite more than 3000 guests on to Escape in Southampton on October 28, of which it hopes the majority will be viewing a cruise ship for the first time.
"By encouraging people who’ve never cruised before to try our ships, we’ll also be helping our travel partners grow their business," added Riley.
The Escape will be Norwegian’s largest ship to date, with a total capacity of 4,200 passengers. It will spend two nights in Southampton on October 27 and 28, before sailing to its homeport of Miami.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Epic will move to Barcelona to sail in Europe year-round from April, but Nick Wilkinson, director business development UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, said it has no plans to base a ship permanently in the UK. "We are pushing hard for that, it is something we are continuing to look at but it is probably not the best time right now," he said.
"When our bigger ships arrive we have to look at what to do with our smaller Jewel-class ships, Asia might be a possibility but another possibility might be Europe, this is definitely something we are looking at although we have no plans for a UK-based ship at this stage."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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