Although just three weeks into his new role, Smith is wants Crystal to become the “most trade-friendly ultra-luxury cruise line” in the market. He has seen the product first hand after sailing from Portsmouth to Amsterdam on Crystal Serenity last month.
During his short time at Crystal, the line has launched a trade webinar series and upgraded its trade platform – Travel Advisor Portal – with “a raft of changes”. Going forward Smith also hopes to increase capacity on ship visits and educationals in 2026 by “at least 20%” and potentially set up a travel agent advisory board.
When asked if regular Crystal customers can look past the line’s previous ownership Genting Hong Kong which collapsed in 2022, Smith said: “We’ve found that the Crystal customer was very keen to come back once they’d seen what we had done with the brand.
“The number of previous customers who have returned is very high – I don’t have the amount – but one of the reasons why that happened is we retained 85% of the crew.”
He added: “We’ve elevated the suites and food on board but we’ve not lost the atmosphere on board.
“That is translating extremely well for agents bringing new-to-brand customers on board – not just taking customers from our ultra-luxury competitors where we are seeing a good migration from Regent Seven Seas, Silversea and Seabourn over to Crystal but there’s a huge opportunity to upsell customers.
“Those who are currently booking top-end suites on mainstream or premium luxury cruise lines, Crystal offers grades of suites that are excellent for those customers to try.”
Smith noted how agents could also embark on their own sales journey, saying: “The aim is also to do that with agents. We’re lucky in cruise there’s a place for everyone.”
Crystal is part of the Abercrombie and Kent (A&K) Travel Group. Smith has ambitions to “build up” the “connection” with the Abercrombie and Kent brand – the luxury tour operator – to deliver “elevated” cruise-and-land experiences.
“Imagine being on a Crystal sailing out in South Africa and then being on an exclusive safari with A&K,” he explained. “That is something that I want to build up because of the land options they offer. Our ethos is their ethos. I’m very lucky the foundations are all there.”
Around 350 agents will have joined either a Crystal ship visit or fam trip across 2025, but Smith wants to grow that number next year.
“For a small two-ship cruise line 350 is an exceptional number of agents,” he continued. “We’re going to do even more next year. At least by 20% across fams and in-port functions [ship visits]. We just want people to see the product.”
Crystal is about to launch a TTG Luxury Journey, an immersive fam trip for a small group of luxury travel advisors.
Taking place in October, six agents will be selected to join a Mediterranean sailing on Crystal Symphony. In line with previous TTG Luxury Journeys, agents will get to experience the trip as their customers would, with the aim of giving effective sales tools.
’We need to educate the trade’
Furthermore, Smith plans to “enhance” ship visits and give agents the chance to watch a shortened 10- to 15-minute show onboard, a champagne reception and an extra two hours onboard compared with previous Crystal ship visits.
“We need to educate the trade about how we’re different to our competitors,” he explained.
Smith also promised to increase the number of “face-to-face” training sessions agents could access.
In addition, Smith will invite marketers at travel agencies to Crystal’s London office in the third quarter of this year for "a marketing deep-dive" to help boost their businesses’ Crystal sales.
“One of those things we’re looking at it is using this incredible office and working alongside our sister brands and bringing all of the marketers into the office,” Smith said, adding: “We’ve got some amazing spaces and a whole bar area.
“It will basically be a full immersion day so that they can understand customer profiles so they can market Crystal in the right way.
“We need to make sure that we’re making it as easy as possible to sell Crystal.”
