The Advantage Travel Partnership is rolling out its plans to support this year’s Cruise Month, which the Partnership says includes more marketing activity than ever before. The upweighted marketing activity for Cruise Month will provide extensive support to members by giving them access to an increased portfolio of tools and resources to help them with selling cruise during what is a lucrative time of the year for the sector.

The ‘Around the World on Waterways’ campaign was launched late last week with a first-of-its-kind exclusive virtual briefing with members to showcase all the activity that Advantage has planned to support Cruise Month. Over 45 members joined the call, which was co-hosted by Advantage’s cruise team and Advantage’s business development managers together with representatives from cruise lines: Marella Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and MSC Cruises.

During the briefing, members were updated on Advantage’s marketing plans and briefed on the current market trends by CLIA. They were also given details about an exclusive AmaWaterways FAM trip that will take place this November and is exclusively open to Advantage members.

Kelly Cookes, Chief Commercial Officer of The Advantage Travel Partnership, said: “Cruise is of significant importance to us as a business and accounts for over a third of our leisure turnover. Across the Partnership we are placing more emphasis on the cruise sector than ever and plan to grow our share even further.  The market is booming and we want to make sure all of our members are capitalising on the sales opportunities whilst supporting them on their growth journey.”

To support Cruise Month further, Advantage is joining forces with Celebrity Cruises throughout September to trial their new initiative ‘On the road with Celebrity Cruises’. Advantage and Celebrity representatives will be out on the road visiting members across the country, with a focus on yet-to-cruise customers with the aim to showcase everything the brand has to offer.

Advantage will also be distributing the twice-yearly edition of its cruise focused consumer magazine, Navigate. The magazine comprises of editorial content with articles looking at how the cruise industry is working towards cleaner, sustainable cruising, destination features on places like the south of France, updates, tips and advice on what luxury cruising means to the experts and carries partner advertising.

The publication is usually distributed digitally, but during Cruise Month and for the first time, members will also be receiving printed copies. Additionally, two Navigate Bookazines, Advantage’s series of digital bookazines, aim to give greater insight into the cruise market, will be issued during the month with themes that include Luxury Cruise Lines and Cruising Trends. Plus, details of dedicated offers content will be shared with members’ customers throughout cruise month. All content is designed for members to use in their own cruise marketing, giving them access to quality content to engage and inspire new and existing customers. Navigate Magazine can be viewed here.

Jonny Peat, Cruise Commercial Manager, The Advantage Travel Partnership, added: “Cruise month gives us a great opportunity to really focus on the sector and with the amazing support we get from our cruise partners, and we believe it’s going to drive a significant growth for members.

“Not only will members get great support to help them capitalise on cruise month, but we will also be giving them the opportunity to win amazing prizes including Amazon vouchers and goody bags from cruise partners, through a gamification initiative called ‘Anchors Aweigh’.

Advantage’s intranet hub will house all the content available for members to access, including digital assets, banners and cruise video content, with Point of Sale hitting members stores from 7^th September. The consortium will be hosting its 2023 Cruise Conference for members of its Latitude cruise focused product community from 18 – 20 November 2023 onboard Uniworld’s River Cruise ship – Joie de Vivre.