Advantage aims to double size of cruise community in 2024

The Advantage Travel Partnership aims to double the size of its cruise community in 2024.

The consortium rebranded its cruise product, called Latitude, last year and has grown the brand to 300 members.

During Advantage’s Latitude cruise conference in Paris on November 18-20, the partnership revealed plans to double its membership to 600 by the end of next year.

More: Advantage hails success of cruise platform following rebrand

To achieve its target, the consortium is planning on doubling the number of Advantage-hosted ship visits in 2024 compared to 2023, going from 10 to 20, to host a “first timers fam” for members who are either new to travel or new to cruise, and to run a briefing for members at the start of next year to prepare them for a “bumper” January and February.

Advantage will also host a series of regional training days in 2024 to unite members with cruise supplier partners.

Senior commercial manager for cruise Jonny Peat said he wants every Latitude member to take at least one ship visit in 2024 as having first-hand experience of the product “makes all the difference when driving sales.”

“Cruise has become a lucrative sector for members and with the cruise market set for further growth in 2024, our members are looking for more information, greater insight, additional tools and superior product knowledge to fully leverage the commercial benefit of retailing cruise, and that’s what we are aiming to deliver to them,” said Peat.

“In our experience, ship visits make all the difference to members and result in higher sales volumes so that’s a key focus for us in 2024.”

John Sullivan, head of commercial, added: “Through all our planned cruise activity for 2024 we are demonstrating how important the cruise sector is to us and the importance we place on the relationships we have with our cruise partners.

“With additional dedicated resources and even more focus, we are confident that we’ll capitalise on this booming sector in 2024.”