October’s new-look Cruise Month campaign has delivered its best-ever results in Australasia, attracting record levels of travel agent involvement while creating a surge in consumers looking to connect with agent members of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
With an expanded social media campaign and digital advertising program, this year’s Cruise Month initiative resulted in more than 20,300 visits to the ‘find a CLIA travel agent’ function on the CLIA website, a 51% increase on October last year. Overall traffic on the CLIA website was up 47%.
At the same time, the number of travel agents who took part in Cruise Month initiatives more than doubled. Over 2,000 CLIA members took advantage of CLIA’s Cruise Month toolkit, and 3,400 members registered to take part in an expanded Cruise Month webinar program.
CLIA Managing Director in Australasia Joel Katz said the primary aim of Cruise Month had been to elevate CLIA travel agents in the mind of consumers.
“We know that CLIA members are the best-trained and most professional cruise specialists out there, and this year’s Cruise Month figures prove that this is important to consumers,” Mr Katz said. “October’s 51% increase in people using our agent search function shows there’s a lot of enthusiasm for cruising and that travellers are looking for a trusted advisor to help shape their holiday.”
Mr Katz said this year’s Cruise Month webinar program had been the most extensive offered, with 30 online education opportunities scheduled throughout October.
“Thousands of agents took part in webinars presented by more than two dozen cruise brands, giving them fresh insight into their latest product developments and promotions,” Mr Katz said. “We also presented webinars on each of our four weekly Cruise Month themes – Ocean Cruising, River Cruising, Expedition Cruising and Luxury Cruising – explaining the opportunities presented by each category and selling tips to help attract new sales.”
With a fresh look linking the excitement of cruising with the allure of cruise destinations, this year’s Cruise Month campaign involved a rolling program of imagery and videos on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, directing consumers to CLIA cruise specialist travel agents.
It also involved digital advertising targeting new-to-cruise consumers as well as established cruising fans, plus Cruise Month coverage in major newspapers and specialist publications, Cruise Month promotions by CLIA cruise lines, and a competition for CLIA travel agents who launched their own Cruise Month events.
