The New Year is driving a new look for Celebrity Cruises as the cruise line celebrates a new marketing platform and its first ever sale on flight prices to make cruises more affordable than ever, the company said in a statement. New initiatives targeting agents are also on the pipeline.

‘Modern Luxury’, the new marketing platform for the brand, will be featured in all new point of sale materials for agents highlighting the strong turn-of-year offer from Celebrity Cruises. Agents can take advantage of selling the first ever flight promotion from the cruise line as part of the new ‘Modern Luxury’ activity including subsidised European flights from £49 per person and complimentary balcony upgrades when customers book an ocean view stateroom on selected sailings in 2012. 

Cruises departing the UK onboard the hugely popular Celebrity Eclipse, and the new wine themed cruises onboard Celebrity Constellation also based from Southampton for the first time in September and October 2012, will feature accommodation upgrades and complimentary car parking or coach transfers.

Modern Luxury is a new marketing platform to showcase Celebrity Cruises’ contemporary attributes and differentiate it from traditional cruising. The concept sums up the experiences that Celebrity Cruises’ target market already aligns themselves to, and looks for in their holiday. Its key principles are built around matching and exceeding the aspirations of guests including via an innovative and young fleet, distinctive and exquisitely presented cuisine, personalised service and the range of activities and experiences available on board.  Many of the fleet’s quirky features are in response to modern life, such as providing iPad menus in Qsine. Celebrity Cruises has launched a new training module dedicated to the ‘Modern Luxury’ platform, providing agents with the tools to understand and sell the concept to clients. 

Michael English, head of sales, Celebrity Cruises, explains: “The Celebrity Cruises fleet is undergoing a huge revamp to add popular features found onboard Solstice Class ships to many of our other ships. This investment delivers new restaurants, bars and accommodation that all complete what we term as a ‘Modern Luxury’ holiday experience. We hope that the strong offers for the peak turn-of-year period help to get agents behind selling what is exciting and different about Celebrity Cruises. The number of cruises from the UK increases in 2012 and we remain commitment to training and incentivising agents to ensure they are best placed to sell.”

To support the turn of year offer and ‘Modern Luxury’ marketing platform, Celebrity Cruises is also running an agent incentive including a goody bag prize draw with the chance to win an iPod nano, itunes voucher, champagne and chocolates. Agents simply need to sell any Celebrity Cruises 2012 itinerary and complete the new Modern Luxury training module between 12 December 2011 and 31 January 2012 to be entered into the daily goody bag prize draw. Plus, once a week there will also be the chance to win an iPad 2. The two agents who make the most entries to the prize draw during the incentive period, and therefore make the most sales, will also win a 14 night European cruise for two people from Celebrity Cruises.

Offers available for agents to sell from 12 December 2011 to 31 January 2012 include:

 

·         12-night Mediterranean Venice cruise departing Barcelona onboard Celebrity Silhouette in May 2012 with a fly cruise starting from starting from £1,499 per person

·         Upgrade to balcony accommodation for the same price as an oceanview stateroom on an eight-night Norwegian Fjords cruise onboard Celebrity Eclipse from Southampton in May 2012. Prices, including a free balcony upgrade, start from £1,199 per person

·         Immersive wine cruise during the Autumn harvest directly from the UK .  A 12 night cruise from Southampton on board Celebrity Constellation departing 7 September starts from £1,099, including a free balcony upgrade and complimentary car parking or coach transfers to Southampton .

 

As part of the new ‘Modern Luxury’ marketing platform, agents are also receiving a fully updated sales and marketing support pack detailing new logos, images, brand guidelines and template marketing material to use with their own databases. Plus, simple selling guides include details on the offers and applicable sailings.