In just 24 hours, Cruise Month will kick off in Australia. Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) will launch the annual initiative tomorrow (1 October 2019), heralding the start of a busy season of summer cruising in Australasian waters.
Taking place throughout October, Cruise Month with involve weekly themes based on ocean cruising, river cruising, luxury cruising and expedition cruising. It will also celebrate the world’s wider cruise community as part of CLIA’s #WeAreCruise campaign, highlighting some of the many social and economic benefits that cruising brings to communities globally.
“Cruise Month provides a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness about cruising, reach new customers and drive more sales through many of the special offers available from CLIA cruise lines,” said CLIA Australasia Managing Director Joel Katz. “It also gives us a chance to highlight the importance of booking through CLIA-accredited travel agents, who give travellers the confidence that comes from dealing with a highly trained and authoritative specialist.”
This year’s Cruise Month will help reinforce the benefits of booking through a CLIA-accredited travel agent, telling consumers about the additional skills and education that dedicated cruise specialists have invested in. This message will also feature in new resources available in CLIA’s Cruise Month toolkit, which offers travel agents a wealth of downloadable materials that can be used in their own marketing and social media efforts.
CLIA travel agents will be able to share their own #WeAreCruise stories in a competition that gives them a chance to win a seven-day Alaska cruise for two thanks to Holland America Line. To take part, CLIA members need to create a short #WeAreCruise video that explains their inspirational or life-changing cruise story, then post it on Facebook or Instagram during October with the hashtag #WeAreCruise, tagging @CLIAAustralasia.
CLIA travel agents can access the Cruise Month toolkit by logging into the Members Hub on the CLIA Australasia website.
