It’s hard to know which is shining brighter – the mid-June sun or the smiles of P&O Cruises’ Rob Scott and Ruth Venn. It’s the hottest week of the year when TTG meets with Scott, the line’s vice-president of sales, marketing and brand, and sales director Venn in a south London restaurant.

And if the pair are feeling cheerful, it’s with good reason… We meet only a few weeks after P&O was finally able to host hundreds of agents onboard flagship Iona during May’s Clia Conference in Southampton, after launching the largest ship ever built for the UK market last summer – when the pandemic meant agent ship visits were difficult to co-ordinate. For many in the trade it was the first chance to experience and explore the vessel.

Now the pair are already looking ahead to a busy second half of 2022, which most notably sees the arrival of Arvia, Iona’s sister ship, in December.

“There’s such a feeling of optimism around the company and the industry at the moment,” says Scott. “Having so many agents onboard Iona was brilliant. I came away feeling very proud of the industry and of our team.”

“There was a real excitement for Iona – you could feel the energy around the conference,” adds Venn. “Having the chance for us to show her off was crucial, especially with Arvia now only a few months away.”

Excitingly for the trade, more opportunities to see Iona and the rest of P&O’s fleet may soon be on the way. Not only will 1,000 agent places be given away for Arvia’s inaugural period, Venn reveals the line is also “hopeful” of restarting its trade ship visits programme “before the end of the year”.

“Agents are a core part of our business and, in such a massive year, it’s important we’re engaging with as many partners as possible,” Scott says.

The pair are also aware of the need to adapt trade training as the industry emerges from the pandemic, with new methods of working and a greater desire for digital learning as new agents join the cruise sector.

Creating more “bite-sized and flexible” training has been a key focus for P&O’s trade team, providing on-demand webinars and monthly Facebook Live sessions to deliver updates. 

And this investment in trade engagement is paying dividends – the line has seen a 40% rise in the number of new registrations to its Shine Rewards Club, which are “increasing each month” compared with 2021 figures.

In March, a new partnership development manager role was also created, with former strategic partnerships executive Cara Hayward tasked with strengthening relationships among new and existing partners who have potential to boost sales.

CRUCIAL MOMENTS

The renewed focus on the trade comes at a key time. The launch of the 5,200-passenger Arvia in December will present both opportunity and challenges, amid a worsening cost of living crisis.

This year has already posed its difficulties; Covid-driven staffing disruption saw the cancellation of seven Arcadia cruises last month. “It wasn’t a decision we took lightly but we couldn’t compromise the guest experience elsewhere in the fleet,” explains Scott, adding the vessel will return to full service this month. 

But despite the surge in capacity that Arvia will bring – and the fact it may launch as the UK enters a recession (if global economists are to be believed), Scott and Venn remain undaunted. 

“It’s undoubtedly a big hill to climb – especially in the current climate – but we’ve been working towards this moment for a number of years,” Scott says confidently. The key, he says, is for the trade to promote to customers the value of holidays at sea as UK households start to tighten their belts. “We’ll look to communicate that more”.

BOOKINGS BONANZA

Scott also says that despite headlines around the impending cost of living crisis, forward bookings remain strong. “Guests are booking for 2023 and these are genuinely new bookings. We’ve done really well in attracting newcomers,” he reveals.

P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow also recently revealed that May saw the line’s best booking week for new-to-brand passengers in its history.

“We know the importance of finding new-to-cruise customers and agents are a key part of that,” adds Venn. “The partners Cara is working with are perfectly placed to help reach these guests and we want to build long-term relationships.

“But this [increase in new customers] hasn’t just happened overnight,” she insists, pointing to the brand’s long-held strategy to broaden its appeal and attract land-based holidaymakers – an approach favoured since announcing plans to add Iona and Arvia to the fleet five years ago.

This has been seen recently through P&O Cruises’ “holidays as varied as you” TV campaign – with the third advert in the series airing last month, alongside a year-long sponsorship of Channel 4’s Adventures on 4 programmes.

Scott and Venn are also excited about “rekindling” the brand’s relationship with Gary Barlow, after the pandemic and pause in service limited onboard opportunities to collaborate with the singer, who was unveiled as a P&O Cruises ambassador in January 2020. He is now set to perform twice on Iona this autumn, raising money for charities.

“That partnership can really come into its own now, there are a lot of exciting avenues where we can take things,” smiles Scott.

Mirroring his role onboard Iona, Barlow will again curate The 710 Club onboard Arvia. And despite similarities with its sister ship, Scott and Venn insist Arvia will have its own personality.

The vessel will bring with it a number of brand firsts onboard, including Green & Co, featuring Mizuhana, P&O Cruises’ debut fish and plant-based restaurant, high ropes course Altitude Skywalk, the Mission Control escape room and a maiden rum distillery at sea. Like Iona, Arvia will also be fuelled by liquefied natural gas.

“We also have a few more experiences left to talk about,” Scott teases. “Now we’re six months away from launch – this is the time things start to really ramp up.”

Iona’s launch in May last year was a hybrid celebration, and though he is tight-lipped on the detail, Scott hints Arvia’s launch will claim brand firsts of her own. “It’s very exciting and it’s going to be different to anything we’ve done before, but that’s all I can say,” he concludes, with a beaming smile.