NCL revamps website
ABTA Convention special report: Norwegian Cruise Line is to enhance its website with improved functionality for agents in 2006 on the back of an aggressive sale push starting next week.
Online booking for agents will be added to the site together with the ability to make restaurant reservations in advance on the line’s 12 ships.
The new look website is due to go live at the end of the first quarter of next year.
General manager Francis Riley said there was “no intention” to allow direct web bookings for NCL, which claims that more than 95% of UK business comes from agents and operators.
“We have no intention of discriminating against the trade,” he said.
Speaking at the ABTA Convention, Riley revealed that NCL’s UK business for 2005 was up 25% year on year and the company is looking for a further 30% growth next year, helped by having two ships in Europe – Norwegian Jewel in the Med from Barcelona qnd Norwegian Dream from Dover to the Baltics.
What he described as “the most aggressive sales campaign” through the trade would kick off next week in advance of the peak new year booking season.
Riley declined to divulge details but denied that the push would be fundamentally price driven, although tactical pricing would play a part.
“Selective discounts” giving a GBP699 lead-in were used earlier this year to create awareness of the line’s presence in the Med in summer 2006 but Riley predicted that rates would firm up in January and February.
New from next May will be overnight stops in Bermuda on two different fly-cruise itineraries from New York, combining the destination with the Bahamas, and the other coupling Bermuda with Caribbean islands such as St Thomas, St Kitts qnd Tortola.
The Bermuda programme is part of NCL’s drive towards offering more cruise and stay options in regions like Alaska, Hawaii and the Caribbean.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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