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TUI Cruises on track to become major European player

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 01 July 2015 01 July 2015

TUI Cruises, the Hamburg based company that is jointly owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd (RCCL) and TUI AG, is performing well and new investment drives its ambition to make the company a major force in Europe, senior officials said.

“We regard the cruise market as a growth market for our Group. By expanding our activities in this segment we want to drive the planned revenue and earnings increases for the TUI Group and at the same time develop into one of Europe s leading cruise providers,” Sebastian Ebel, responsible for the Cruise activities on the Board of TUI Group, said in a statement.

TUI Cruises had earlier today ordered two 99,300 gross ton ships at Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. These will take the number of ships purpose built for the company to six. Two first units of the company are to be transferred to Thomson Cruises in the UK

“TUI Cruises has firmly established itself in the German-speaking market, with occupancy of our fleet totaling more than 100 percent last year," said Wybcke Meier, CEO of TUI Cruises, in the statement.

“This year, demand has also been excellent so far with bookings currently being taken for five ships. A further expansion provides a great opportunity to strengthen our position with one of the most modern fleets in the German market.

TUI AG, which is headquartered in Hannover and whose shares are main listed in London, has said that it plans to rebrand most of its operations as TUI. It also wants to bring its Thomson Cruises, which operates five ships in the British market, closer to TUI Cruises.

Earlier this year, it announced that TUI Cruises will charter the 69,130 gross ton Splendour of the Seas that would be renamed Thomson Discovery to Thomson Cruises from next spring. TUI Cruises would manage the ship from Hamburg and it would be commercially operated by Thomson in Britain.

The move, which will be followed by Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2 once the ships ordered today will be delivered, is intended to replace Thomson’s chartered ships and upgrade its fleet.

Hurtigruten buys Portuguese ferry for coastal express

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 01 July 2015 01 July 2015

Hurtigruten, which operates a coastal express ferry service in Norway and expedition cruises, says it has acquired a Portuguese ferry that will be needed to fill the gap left by a ship to be employed in cruising

The 2009 built Atlantida will join the company’s fleet as Norway Explorer. The 7,025 gross ton ship will replace the Midnatsol, which dates back to 2003 and which is of 16,151 gross tons, on the coastal express service from the autumn of 2016, the company said in a statement.

The now acquired ship has 180 berths and it can accommodate a total of 320 passengers. Powered by a diesel-electric pod system, the ship is highly maneuverable, Hurtigruten said.

Affinity Gaming and Carnival Cruise Line form partnership

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 30 June 2015 30 June 2015

Affinity Gaming has partnered with Carnival Cruise Line to offer exciting new benefits to members of Affinity’s A-Play Player’s Club at 11 Affinity-owned casinos in four states.

The partnership will award Affinity Gaming’s highest Player’s Club tier members with a variety of benefits, including the opportunity to earn complimentary Carnival cruises, beginning July 1, 2015, based on their level of play. Mid-level tier members will be eligible to receive special discounted offers on a wide variety of Carnival cruises, which visit beautiful ports throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas, Alaska, Hawaii and other destinations.

“We believe that our players will find this new benefit to be very rewarding and cultivate strong loyalty between the players and our properties,” said Affinity Gaming Chief Operating Officer Michael Silberling. “Our partnership with Carnival Cruise Line is a win-win for all parties involved.”

“Affinity Gaming LLC is an excellent partner for this venture as they share Carnival Cruise Line’s commitment to outstanding service and hospitality,” said Marty Goldman, Carnival’s senior vice president of global casino operations. “We look forward to bringing the one-of-a-kind Carnival vacation experience to Affinity Gaming A-Play guests and providing them with a lifetime of wonderful memories.”

The cruises can be booked through any of Carnival’s reservations channels, including its valued travel agent partners.

Carnival launches custom-designed email marketing initiative aimed at new travel agents

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 30 June 2015 30 June 2015

Carnival Cruise Line has launched a new email marketing initiative aimed at travel partners who are new to selling Carnival. The custom-created content provides a comprehensive overview of the line’s many tools and resources that agents can leverage to start selling with success.

Designed as a one-stop shop to introduce new agents to Carnival, the five-part “Welcome to Fun” email marketing program covers a wide range of topics, everything from maximizing the use of the line’s travel agent Internet portal GoCCL.com to details on the award-winning Carnival Passport travel agent educational tool and the Travel Partner Toolbox featuring quick and easy access to trade support and sales-boosting resources. The benefits of the line’s one-of-a-kind Travel Agent Rewards Program, which enables agents to earn points redeemable for a variety of prizes for the activities they do every day in working with Carnival, are included, as well.

“We heard through our Carnival Conversations events that while we’re an excellent line for new agents to start selling given our mass market appeal, our wide-ranging training resources can be a bit daunting when agents are just getting started,” said Adolfo Perez, Carnival’s vice president of trade sales and marketing. “The ‘Welcome to Fun’ email program intuitively detects new agents when they register on GoCCL.com and provides them with helpful information to guide them through our key sales and marketing resources, all in an easy-to-navigate format,” he added.

“We’re pleased that Carnival has created this dedicated email series for new agents. We prioritize training and providing new agents with easily accessible information that shortens the learning curve is important to helping them grow their business – tools like this really help,” said Michelle Fee, CEO and co-founder of Cruise Planners, an American Express travel representative.

To receive the “Welcome to Fun” series of emails, new agents may register on GoCCL.com. From there, they will automatically receive a series of five emails over a two week period following their initial registration.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines to offer, Christmas 2016, Hogmanay cruise around Britain

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 30 June 2015 30 June 2015

Passengers on Fred. Olsen cruise Lines; Black Watch will be able to celebrate the New Year’s eve 2017 in Edinburgh in Scotland – new year is known as Hogmanay in Scotland.

The call in nearby Rosyth is part of the 28,613 gross ton ship’s 11 night around Britain cruise that will sail from Tilbury outside London on 22 December. The ship will spend Christmas eve in Falmouth and the Christmas day at sea.

Although many cruise lines, Fred. Olsen themselves included, offer cruises around the Britain on a regular basis, these are usually summer itineraries and a wintertime one like this is rather unique.