By: Dori Saltzman
Source: travelagentcentral.com
Travel agents are reporting that cruise ship bookings are trending in the right direction and most are looking forward to strong travel in the next six months. Although most booking would have already been made for travel in the current year, agents are expecting that there would be last minute reservations before year-end.
Michelle Fee, CEO and Crusie Planners’ co-founder, says that expectations for the fourth quarter are “pretty good” and they are observing that their 2009 numbers are looking strong. But, the company is still counting on last-minute booking trends.
According to Dwain Wall, senior vice president and general manager of CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., the trends are positive and there is an increase in both bookings and sales over last year, year-over-year. Over the last 20 weeks, bookings have increased by 15 percent and over the past three weeks, sales are up by 9 percent over last year.
CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. are running special holiday promotion trying to take advantage of the holiday season to push for any last-minute business. The companies are working hard to stimulate first-quarter bookings by planning a “major” World’s Largest Cruise Night event and are anticipating a much better Wave Season than last year.
