Jason Worth, who took up the newly created role of vice-president international sales in August, said there was “a lot of potential” in the UK market.
Last week, Worth met with 12 agencies and consortia – including The Cruise Line, Trailfinders, Iglu, Readers Offers Limited, Panache Cruises, Advantage Travel Partnership and Travel Counsellors – to find out where Oceania could improve.
“We want to grow the number of agents that we work with,” he told TTG. “We’ll continue to help our established agents as well as grow those in the high street retail space.
“There are thousands of agents in the UK and while we won’t work with all of them, there’s a subset that fits well with our product.”
Worth said UK and Irish agents had welcomed the move to introduce a non-refundable deposit on 1 September.
“Now we feel that guests that book will be firmer in their commitment to us and to the trade,” he added. “The agents are happy that they’re not going to cancel at the last minute – that is exciting.”
He insisted that Oceania’s UK and Ireland trade sales team knows which agents they want to start working with, thanks to “historical data”.
Worth added Oceania was pursuing UK agencies that might already sell cruises, but don’t yet promote its sailings.
“The Australia and New Zealand market is a big performer, but the UK market is now our number one outside North America,” he added.
“The UK market has the potential to be far and above our top international market. It’s an established cruise market – and we’ve had a lot of success there over the years. We’ll see if it continues.”
Oceania recently hosted 750 agents across 12 ship visits in Southampton, Dundee, Liverpool, Belfast, Glasgow, Portsmouth and Tilbury over 35 days.
Worth said the number of UK and Irish agents who experience Oceania’s ships first-hand will surpass 1,000 by the end of the year.
Next year, Worth predicts Oceania will get even more agents on fam trips and ship visits. “I’ve already sent the fam trip itineraries to the UK team for next year,” he said. “The 2024 [educational] programme should be bigger.
“We do have a plethora of ships visiting the UK or are based in Europe. The best way for an agent to start selling our ships is sailing with us. Although it’s hard to do, and we would rather sell cabins to our guests, we’re open to doing fam trips.”
He also identified new-to-cruise passengers tended to sail with “mass market brands” before moving “up the chain” to Oceania.
“[New-to-cruise customers] will travel with their families first before migrating up the chain and sailing with us as a couple,” Worth explained. “They’ll go through the big ships to start their cruise experience.”
Worth revealed that “a lot” of new-to-cruise customers looking for value for money had started booking the line’s cruises after hotels raised their prices.
