CHOOSE CRUISE: CLIA ditches Plan A Cruise month for snappier name

Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) Australasia is nixing it’s famous ‘Plan a Cruise Month’ to encourage travellers to book, rather than just planning.

CLIA is instead encouraging travellers to ‘Choose Cruise’ as the preferred holiday style.

CLIA Australasia and Asia Managing Director, Joel Katz said the ChooseCruise hashtag was successful in the past and generated unprecedented traction on social media.

“Choose Cruise is an opportunity for travel lovers to learn more about the different cruise options available, and to take advantage of promotions and value-adds from cruise experts,” Mr Katz said.

“Australian cruise passenger numbers hit a record high in 2017 with 1.34 million passengers taking an ocean cruise. This equates to almost 1 in 18 Australians cruising last year.”

“With weekly themes of Ocean, River, Luxury, and Expedition throughout October, we are hoping to engage both new and existing cruisers in exciting ways.”

Choose Cruise includes a combination of trade, consumer and media activities, as well as a dedicated ‘Choose Cruise’ microsite, which will feature relevant cruise information, experiences and CLIA agent search.

CLIA also plans to develop a marketing toolkit with customisable media releases, newsletter articles, social media tiles and infographics, which member agents can use to develop promotional material targeting local media, their email database of clients (and prospective clients) and their social media followers.

The toolkit will be made available to CLIA agent members on 15 August via webinars and as downloadable support materials from the Members Hub.

The association said it would reward the most creative online and offline marketing ‘Choose Cruise’ campaigns of its agent members with a chance to win several cruise prize giveaways including cruises and Breakaway Travelclub.

To support its agent members, CLIA will be collaborating with Fairfax Media, News Limited, New Zealand Herald, Vacations & Travel Magazine and Cruise Passenger Magazine to encourage the public to book their cruise via a CLIA-accredited agent.

Choose Cruise will now take place every October with CLIA offices around the world working with CLIA accredited agents and CLIA member cruise lines to promote cruise holidays.

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