Incentives from Silversea, Azamara, Celebrity Cruises and more
Celebrity Cruises’ The Retreat sundeck
Silversea Cruises is relaunching its reward and recognition programme for travel agents – running from now till December 31, 2023, Silversea Advocates is designed to celebrate exceptional work. The programme will recognise eight advocates monthly for a variety of reasons that span from sales performance to completing a successful marketing promotion, or even running a Silversea event. Silverseas’ regional sales managers will submit their nomination monthly, with the advocates receiving 100 Silversea Agent Rewards points, which agents can redeem from the online voucher code section featuring Virgin Wines, Amazon and Love2Shop to use for thousands of products. Each advocate will also receive a plaque and an invitation to a prestigious event in February 2024, with one lucky advocate awarded a suite for two on board a Silversea cruise. Additional initiatives aimed at supporting travel partners include Marketing Central, an online suite of marketing resources and sales tools for agents, accessed via My.Silversea.com and webinars by Silversea, a short informative video series hosted by team members globally to keep travel agent partners abreast of activities, new products and promotions – found on webinars.silversea.com
A-ROSA River Cruises’ turn of year Wave campaign runs from now until January 31, 2023. Agents booking directly with A-ROSA can take advantage of great savings, FREE UK airport lounge passes for clients on every booking, and earn £50 Love2Shop vouchers for themselves on every departure date and duration across its portfolio. This is the first time A-ROSA has been able to create a dedicated campaign for the key sales period, following the launch of their bespoke ATOL protected packaged products including flights and pre/post stays, in Spring 2022. A-ROSA will also be creating social media tiles for agents to use, which will be loaded on to their agent Facebook page, plus a dedicated deals flyer.
Key messages are:
- Save £800 per couple on seven-night cruises in 2023 – Available on all dates and rivers. Prices lead in at £1,475pp on the Seine, departing October 12.
- Save £2000 per couple on the 18-night Danube Delta cruise in 2023 – based on April 10, 2023 departure, prices from £3,999pp.
- Receive a FREE UK airport lounge pass with every booking – add value to a booking and your customers’ cruise holiday.
- EARN a £50 Love2Shop voucher on every booking – applies to bookings made up to January 31, 2023 for every departure date and duration across the entire portfolio. The more bookings are made, the more vouchers an agent will receive.
- Overall, prices for 2023 lead in at £949pp for a four-night Mini Cruise Main & Lorelei on the Rhine in November 2023.
All prices include flights with 23kg of luggage, Premium All-Inclusive on the ship and private car transfers. To book call 0151 350 1155; arosa-cruises.co.uk.
Those wanting to enter Royal Caribbean’s trade customer competition Royal Pitch should move quickly – agents have until January 30 to submit creative proposals for the chance to win financial investment to help make innovative business ideas a reality. The final round of judging will take place in the following weeks – to enter, agents need to submit a video via the Club Royal website that details their creative business proposal and requested investment in under five minutes. Find more details on the competition and how to enter at myclubroyal.co.uk.
Azamara’s trade partner programme, Azamara Alliance, is committed to supporting and strengthening relationships with its loyal travel partner community. Azamara Alliance features new tools and technologies to create a seamless experience for trade partners with a new booking platform, more intuitive Azamara Connect trade partner portal, and expanded contact centre. Looking ahead, Azamara will continue to expand and enhance its relationships and offerings with travel partners: live training sessions will be hosted this month, with self-paced learning tools to help travel partners familiarise themselves with the new booking platform and to get the most out of the new Azamara Connect. The programme includes the new Versonix Seaware Touch Booking Platform – the all-new booking engine with easily accessible features and functionality for travel partners to book over one integrated platform; the all-new Azamara Connect Travel Trade Portal, providing all the tools needed to support sales efforts, and an expanded contact centre.
Celebrity Cruises has announced its biggest ever cash giveaway. The return of the agent incentive campaign, Celebrity Moments, will see a total of £125,000 rewarded. When making bookings across the fleet, agents have the opportunity to earn up to £1,500, via Celebrity Rewards. Prioritising rewarding agents with cash prizes throughout the next three months, there will be multiple chances to earn, with bonus chances to win. The 100 top performing agents (from December 2022) until March 1, 2023 will earn £500 each. Agents will also have the chance to win additional cash prizes when making multiple bookings. The first of the ‘Sell More, Win More’ prize draws will see 50 agents who make ten or more bookings win £500 each. In the second draw, 25 agents who secure 20 or more bookings will win £1,000 each. The line is giving guests more ways to book bucket-list holidays: when booking (between December 6, 2022) up until March 1, 2023, travellers will access savings of 75% for the second guest, and an onboard spend of $400 per stateroom. Celebrity Cruises is also celebrating and supporting new starters to the industry as well as those new to the brand, over the Wave period. New agents will receive a £25 bonus per booking, on top of the already-generous Celebrity Rewards earnings, for the first five bookings they claim through Celebrity Central. All travel partners will see earnings with Celebrity Rewards ‘Earn On Every Booking’ which was reintroduced earlier this year – agents will earn £5 when booking an Inside or Oceanview stateroom, £10 for a Balcony, Concierge or Aquaclass stateroom and £20 when booking in The Retreat or for sailings to the Galapagos Islands. For details, visit celebritycentral.co.uk.
Windstar Cruises has a solo traveller offer featuring 0% single supplement on select 2023 sailings to destinations including the Mediterranean, Australasia and the South Pacific. Prices are cruise only and include all meals and entertainment. Windstar is also offering a low solo supplement of just 20% on over 70 worldwide sailings departing until April 4, 2024 with solo prices starting from just £1,021 pp for a 15-night Transatlantic sailing from Barbados to Lisbon departing March 29, 2023 on Wind Star. Agents booking any of these solo fare sailings will receive a £25 gift voucher of their choice. There is no limit to the number of bookings – the more cruises that agents book, the more money they will earn. For further information and reservations call 0808 178 2233 or visit windstarcruises.com
Ambassador Cruise Line is running an agent concession for its 2023 maiden voyages onboard Ambience, enabling agents to book a cabin from £40 per night. To book, email them or call 0808 102 8207.
Enter your Cunard fare bookings to play the line’s online deck game and earn Shine points. Combine Cunard and P&O Cruises Shine points to choose from a selection of rewards, including beauty products, the latest technology and electronics, or even a cruise. Redeem your Shine points to pay for 25 per cent, 50 per cent or 100 per cent of a Cunard voyage. Find out more at shinerewardsclub.com.
Encourage a travel agent friend to sign up to Cruise Adviser and we’ll enter you in a prize draw to win a £50 Amazon voucher. Make sure they enter your details when asked for a reference name. If you’re not subscribed, do so here.
With River Rewards & More, travel agents can earn luxury gifts for every Scenic and Emerald Cruises booking they make. The more river cruises, escorted tours or ocean cruises they book, the higher the rewards, with the chance of earning bonus points. Find out more at riverrewards.cruises.
New hires: Titan Travel and APT & Travelmarvel
Titan Travel has appointed Hayley Morris as its new Head of Trade Sales. Hayley will lead the escorted touring specialist’s trade sales strategy and team of area sales managers across the UK.
With more than 22 years’ experience in the travel industry, Hayley joins Titan having previously held roles with Saga Holidays, Monarch Holidays and Thomas Cook.
Hayley Morris
Her appointment reinforces Titan’s ongoing commitment to the trade and the importance they play in the brand’s sales and distribution efforts. As part of that, the online agent login is now live on its website, allowing agents to browse prices and availability and book Titan tours.
“Titan already holds a very special relationship with the trade thanks to its award-winning tours, price parity and strong incentives programme,” says Morris. “I look forward to developing this relationship and working closely with all our existing partners and agents across the UK to further support their business needs.”
Sarah Turner
APT & Travelmarvel has completed its recruitment drive to grow its trade sales and agency support team to its largest ever size, with the appointment of Sarah Turner as Business Development Manager (BDM) South. Sarah will cover the south of the UK in its entirety.
Sarah is a luxury travel expert and joins APT from Small Luxury Hotels of the World. She also brings outstanding industry experience from her time as Agency Sales Manager at Abercrombie & Kent, Cox & Kings, Railbookers and Amtrack Vacations.
Reporting into Brad Bennetts, APT & Travelmarvel’s head of sales & business development, Sarah will be responsible for positioning the operator’s river cruises, Croatian yachting programme, expedition cruises, and tours as the products of choice for agents in her region. Day-to-day she will build relationships with key trade partners, identify new business opportunities, manage third-party retail accounts, and deliver quality and engaging training for local agents in the South.
Sarah will work alongside Robin Griffiths, BDM for Central UK; Koral Lipton, BDM for Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and Becky Baumbach who has taken on the newly created BDM role dedicated to homeworkers.