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Retailer Cruise2Cruise to close
Cruise retailer Cruise2Cruise is being shut by parent travel management company P&O Travel.
No further bookings are being taken and customers are being referred to individual cruise lines following a decision by the company to focus on the corporate and marine markets.
The five Cruise2Cruise staff who share P&O Business Travel’s Abingdon branch in Oxfordshire have entered a consultation process with the company over their futures.
Staff will be retained until the end of the month to handle customer queries. Cruise2Cruise, which took bookings via a website and telephone, has been running for almost five years.
A statement from the company said: “P&O Travel, a subsidiary of Carnival Plc, has today announced the decision to discontinue the operations of Cruise2Cruise.com, its retail cruise division.
“This decision has been taken so that P&O Travel can concentrate on its core competencies of business and marine travel.
“Carnival Plc and P&O Travel have implemented plans to ensure that all bookings are fully protected and that affected customers continue to receive the same high level of service before and during their cruise holiday.”
P&O Travel managing director Alan Coles confirmed the cruise retailing business was being discontinued following a strategic review.
Describing cruise retailing as highly competitive, he told TravelMole that the company had descided to concentrate on what it does best – business travel and marine.
“In cruise retailing you have to be in it in a big way for it to be profitable,” he said. “We want to focus on what we are good at and successful in”.
Mr Coles stressed that all bookings were safe as the cruise arm was being wound down in a controlled way.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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