Celebrity Cruises’ UK and Ireland sales chief has issued a “huge thank you” to the trade for its support during what she acknowledged was a “tough market”.
Speaking at its Celebrity Moments “thank you event” for around 100 of its agent partners in London, complete with the cast of Celebs Go Dating, Claire Stirrup revealed the line’s latest Celebrity Moments campaign, #CelebrityGoesDating, had been its most successful ever.
“Our Love Island campaign [in 2017] went beyond expectations and we sat and thought, how could we beat that? We spoke to our agent partners and got as much feedback as we could and we’ve been absolutely thrilled with the #CelebrityGoesDating campaign.
“Our brand awareness has increased hugely, and there’s been so much engagement across social media – it’s been the most engaged campaign we’ve ever done,” she told TTG.
“This event is about thanking the trade – we never take it for granted.”
Elsewhere, Stirrup said the line was “absolutely delighted” with sales of Edge and sister ship Apex, following its Festival of Edge last month which saw Celebrity host around 1,000 agents onboard, “some of whom were new to Celebrity and some who were totally new to cruise”, she said.
“It is a tough market [this year] but we’re really pleased with how Celebrity Cruises is performing. We’ve got the halo of Edge, but we’ve also got Celebrity Reflection in Dublin and Silhouette in Southampton this summer. So we have a lot happening in a very tough market.”
Stirrup added the fact Apex was being named and sailing a mini season in the UK was down to “the results we’ve delivered in the UK and Ireland”.
“And that’s down to our trade partners,” she added.