The CLIA Cruise Selling Day has got off to a great start.
It’s been great to get back to what we love best – meeting travel trade, business partners and of course, talking about holidays again.
The day started with a warm welcome from Andy Harmer, Director of CLIA UK and Ireland and Paul Hackett, CEO of Click and Go.
An opening speech was delivered by Hackett who outlined the challenges facing the cruise industry.
In his speech, he commented that things must change as Irish travel agents hope to rebuild confidence in selling cruises to customers.
“Ireland has had little or no cruise to sell in 2021, due to the UK no longer being in Europe. Cruising has been slow to recover here and that’s down to the UK having lots to sell.”
“The challenges for travel agents are the same across the country. It’s next to impossible to hire staff while public liability insurance carries more risk. It’s definitely going to be tough.”
“As we get back to business, we need to approach things differently and try to improve that”.
Tony Roberts and Giles Hawke provided a cruise industry update and were later joined by Peter Shanks and Eamonn Ferrin for a panel discussion.
The second half of the day saw a trade fair take place between Selling Day Cruise Sponsors, including Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and MSC.
A Cruise Expert Panel discussion was also held featuring Stephen Joyner of A-ROSA, Steve Williams of MSC Cruises, Rebecca Kelly of Princess Cruises & Jennifer Callister of Royal Caribbean International
