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P&O Cruises and Cunard Line open email hotline for agents

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 10 July 2013 10 July 2013

P&O Cruises and Cunard Line, both parts of the Carnival Corp & plc group, have opened a joint email hotline for agents in order to facilitate communication between them and the two cruise lines, Travel Weekly reports in a morning email bulletin.

Agents should be replied within 48 hours. “It’s a forum for agents to talk to us if they have questions or enquiries about how we can work together or shape opportunities,” he said. “The idea is to provide direct access for agents to the sales team,” Chris Truscott, head of sales at P&O Cruises and Cunard Line was quoted as saying.

The two companies are also to conduct an annual or twice a year survey of agents’ views: “We want input from the trade in a more substantive manner to understand what the mood music is and how we work with that going forward. Agents are really important to our business and we need to look at how we evolve that relationship.”

Thomson Cruises parent TUI Travel plc buys 60 Boeing 737s

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 10 July 2013 10 July 2013

TUI Travel plc, parent company of TUI Cruises that operates five cruise ships on the British market, says it has decided to order 60 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, with an option to increase order by up to 90 similar jets.

The company’s shareholders approved the $6.09 billion order at a meeting in London yesterday.

Should the company decide the exercise the options, the additional 60 planes would be bought at the same terms as the first 60, while the terms regarding the final 30 units would be agreed at the time of taking up of the first part of the option, the company said.

TUI Cruises operates mainly fly cruises, although one of its ships operates a series of cruises from ports in the UK in the summer.

Princess Cruises establishes five new offices in China

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: More News More News; Published: 09 July 2013 09 July 2013

Carnival plc has announced the opening of five new offices in China that will represent Princess Cruises and support the brand’s increased passenger sourcing in this growing market.

The new offices are located in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

The offices will be overseen by Cherry Wang, who has been appointed Princess Cruises country director for China. She will be based in Shanghai. Wang was previously general manager of Princess Cruises’ ISA group in China, the international sales agent for Princess Cruises and Cunard Line since 2005. Prior to this, she managed sales for several travel agencies and hotels, including Zhejiang International Business Travel Co. Ltd.; Zhejiang Overseas Travel Company; American Bazza Scarf Co. Ltd. Zhejiang office, and Shangri-la Hotel Hangzhou.

"The cruise vacation market is in its infancy in China, and therefore we see this region as one with exciting growth potential," said Alan Buckelew, President and CEO of Princess Cruises. "The new offices in China will support Princess’ marketing efforts to increase the number of Chinese passengers sourced for our global cruises."

These new offices have been opened by the China branch of Carnival plc, which has been established by Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise operator.

Three companies interested in Nova Scotia-New England ferry link

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 08 July 2013 08 July 2013

The Nova Scotia government has receied three proposals to consider for ferry service between New England and Nova Scotia and Portland is a leading contender to be the US port, Seacoastonline.com reports on its website.

The provincial government of Nova Scotia is offering $21 million over seven years to subsidise the startup and it says the next step is to evaluate the proposals to determine whether the companies are able to run a viable service. It has not set a deadline.

The three companies that have expressed an interest in the service are Quest Navigation Inc from Maine, US. has joined with International Shipping Partners of Miami and ST Marine of Singapore for one of the proposals.

The other expressions of interest come from P&O Ferries in the UK, which is part of the DP World group and Balearia Caribbean Ltd., which operates between Florida and the Bahamas and which is part of the Spanish ferry company Balearia.

Thomson, AIDA cancel Egypt calls as situation worsens

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 08 July 2013 08 July 2013

Thomson Cruises, which is part of the London based TUI Travel group, and Carnival Corp & plc’s German unit AIDA Cruises have cancelled calls at ports in Egypt as the political situation in the ecountry appears to be worsening.

"Our cruise team will continue to monitor the situation and are reviewing Egyptian itineraries and the shore excursion programme on a daily basis,” a spokesperson for Thomson told Travel Mole.” The itinerary for the cruise that departed from Marmaris, Turkey on 1 July has already been amended, and we are now calling in Ag Nik (Aghios Nikolaos), Crete and Haifa, Israel instead of Alexandria and Port Said."

Meanwhile AIDAdiva, which is scheduled to visit Port Said on Monday, 8 July, will forego the Egyptian port and stop at Ashdod, the gateway port for visits to Jerusalem. A future call to Port Said, scheduled for 22 July, is still on the books, Cruise Critic reports.