The UK will be “hugely important” for Crystal, the cruise brand acquired by A&K Travel Group (AKTG) last year and relaunched this weekend.

Speaking to TTG during a preview sailing aboard the revamped Crystal Serenity, AKTG’s new chief sales officer Marett Taylor said she felt this was “one of the most exciting growth areas for us”.

“From what we already know with A&K, UK clients are extremely experienced with travelling the world. With that in mind, we feel this will really appeal to them, particularly now we have the link between A&K and Crystal and those synergies in experiences,” she said.

She added UK travellers also represented a large market for a combined Crystal and A&K experience based on their high expectations around authenticity. “They understand the value of the long stay too and that – coupled with the advent of immersive and slow travel – means we have a big opportunity here.”

As part of its ‘One A&K’ strategy – which aims to synergise markets and brands by establishing new global roles connecting A&K and Crystal – Taylor was promoted from within the business earlier in July to take on the newly created role of chief sales officer.

Crystal’s specific sales efforts in the UK are currently headed up by Andrew Magowan, alongside a wider field sales team of four across the A&K brand, and Taylor said the hunt was also on for a senior vice president of trade sales and business development for UK & EMEA.  

She also indicated plans could be in place soon to expand the Crystal team specifically in the UK.

“Since I took on this role a few weeks ago, we have been looking at the database, ascertaining the size of the market and level of overlap between clients who have experienced both Crystal and A&K and we will take it from there in terms of how we build up the team,” she said.

Agents will be able to experience the new-look Crystal Serenity during a Clia event this summer.

Crystal will run one of Clia’s regional ship visit days in Southampton on 22 August, including a tour, lunch and brand presentation as well as an update from Clia on the market, one where 1.7 million UK holidaymakers took a cruise in 2022. The ship will then depart for a round-UK sailing before heading up to northern Europe and the Baltics for the rest of the summer.  

“The more people we can get on to see and feel how the product has been enhanced the better,” Taylor said, adding an agent portal would also be introduced for Crystal later this year, as part of phase two of the brand’s wider digital development.

“We hope to have the online agent portal by the end of the year, which I think we will show how committed we are to the trade, as something like that is critical to any agent who sells cruise,” Taylor said. “We want to create a seamless experience for them to be able to help choose every element of their clients’ trips.”