SINGAPORE, 30 January 2018: Traveltek Group says 2018 will be the ‘year of the cruise’ claiming there will be huge upswing in demand for holidays at sea as well as more river-based trips.
The company is enhancing its cruise-booking technology as travel companies in all of its key markets worldwide capitalise on this booming sector.
Eight out of 10 agents anticipate a significant increase in year-on-year ocean and river cruise sales in 2018, according to the latest statistics from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA),
Driven by several passenger source markets worldwide, as well as growing demand from Millennials and ‘Skip-gen’ family groups, the company is working closely with the trade to tailor content according to their individual requirements.
It will involve refining the next-generation cruise booking platform, CruiseNX, to meet specific industry needs in each region where Traveltek is now based following its 2017 global expansion drive.
“With CLIA projecting 27.2 million cruise passengers this year, sourced from established markets such as the US and UK, but increasingly, new ones including Asia and the Middle East, Traveltek is calling 2018 the ‘year of the cruise’ and making product and business development in this sector a key priority,” said Traveltek Group global sales director Peter Whittle.
North America and Europe remain the largest cruise source markets accounting for 50% and 27% of all passengers respectively, CLIA figures reveal.
However, the ‘Rest of the World’, which contributes the remaining 23%, shows the strongest growth potential given it accounts for nearly 85% of the world’s population. At the same time its market share leapt 332% in a decade, from 8.5% in 2006 to 23% in 2016.
Traveltek established offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai during 2017.
“These are markets where demand is surging above the global average and where Traveltek has introduced new technology to help the trade sell cruise more effectively,” explained Whittle.
CruiseNX offers travel and cruise specialists a wide range of enhanced capabilities designed to drive productivity and enhance the user experience and is available for desktop and as a new B2C website journey.
Traveltek also offers the content of 190-plus cruise lines, multi-currency calculations and multi-language capabilities, plus dynamic packaging tools that help bookers create tailored cruise packages.
