CLIA says Cruise Month generated record engagement

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Edited by Travel Weekly


    October’s Cruise Month initiative has generated record levels of engagement among consumers and the wider cruise community, helping to steer business towards travel agent members of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).

    CLIA Managing Director in Australasia Joel Katz said this year’s Cruise Month had been an outstanding success, achieving more coverage in mainstream media and more attention via social media than ever before.

    “As we begin to analyse the data, we can see that October’s Cruise Month initiative has reached millions of people in Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Katz said. “We’ve achieved more online impressions and reached more people than past campaigns, which has combined with huge amounts of cruise coverage in major media outlets.”

    “Importantly, we put a spotlight on the value of booking through an expert CLIA travel agent,” he said. “As a result, visits to CLIA’s website surged by 162% during October, and more than 13,000 people used our search function to find a CLIA-certified agent in their local area.”

    October’s Cruise Month initiative brought together cruise lines, travel agents and the wider CLIA community to celebrate the start of the summer cruise season and help inspire travellers to book their future cruise. Under the theme More Reasons to #LoveCruise, the initiative included CLIA’s most extensive social media campaign yet, targeting cruise-friendly audiences on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn while encouraging travellers to book their next cruise via a CLIA-certified travel agent.

    Cruise Month also brought wider coverage among media outlets, including extensive cruise features and special lift-outs in major newspapers and magazines around Australia and New Zealand.

    CLIA travel agents put cruising in the spotlight by hosting their own events for clients, while CLIA cruise lines hosted a busy program of webinars for CLIA agents, giving updates and information on ocean, river, expedition and luxury cruising.

    Mr Katz said excitement around cruising would continue through the coming summer, with around 70 ships scheduled to operate in Australasian waters between now and the end of April.

    “Cruising is more popular than ever, and so we will continue to share the message that the best way to plan a cruise is by taking advantage of the specialist insight of a CLIA travel agent,” he said.

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