More growth potential in the Mediterranean and more advance bookings for 2015.
On the second day of the International Cruise Summit, Alfredo Serrano, Managing Director of CLIA Spain, presented key figures for the Spanish cruise market, the second largest European market for cruise destinations and the fifth largest source of cruise passengers. He also highlighted the strong booking momentum for 2015 and announced a training program for travel agents.
This year, one of the new features was the panel of media outlets specializing in the sector. Claire Riches, CEO of Travel Waves, emphasized the enormous value of video content for feeding digital media. Creating content that inspires the viewer is key, and in that sense, she warned that strategies like pay-per-click advertising on search engines are not very inspiring.
Susan Parker, a freelance journalist, encouraged ports to send her short stories always accompanied by photographs, and Virginia Lopez, General Director of Cruises News Media Group, warned that ports should review their communication strategies and align them more with their business objectives.
Alan Lam, correspondent for Cruise Business Review, went further, lamenting that sometimes ports don't even want to talk to the press. Tony Peisley asserted that it's better not to have websites at all than to have outdated ones.
Bob Dixon, Cunard and P&O's Managing Director of Sales, offered his analysis of the passenger profile, providing key insights for increasing the growth rate in this segment.
The final panel of the congress highlighted the importance of travel agents and the investment in training and familiarization trips to understand and offer the product. Belén Wangüemert of Royal Caribbean also confirmed that supply and demand have stabilized. Rosa Paramio, Director of Tourmundial-Viajes El Corte Inglés, emphasized that professionalism in sales is key; it's essential to distinguish between clients, as selling the wrong cruise inevitably leads to complaints.
They all agreed to convey broad messages of optimism for 2015, the positioning of more ships in Spain, a Mediterranean with growth potential, a deseasonalized offer, etc.
The closing speech was given by the President of State Ports, Mr. Jose Llorca, who highlighted not only the efforts that our port system is offering to shipping companies in terms of cost reductions but also the new projects in infrastructure and the environment, among others, which are making the Spanish port system one of the best in Europe.
