20 May 2022by Sophie Griffiths
Cruise sales through travel agents are steadily increasing as agencies that shut down during the pandemic start to reopen.
That was the optimistic message from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings chief executive Frank del Rio as he spoke via video link at the Clia Conference in Southampton.
“I’m see the travel agent community start to wake up a bit,” he told delegates onboard MSC’s newest ship Virtuosa.
“We’re beginning to see an upsurge in bookings coming in from travel agents.
“We saw more direct bookings for a while but we started to see a return in the US [with travel agents] and now we’re seeing that in the UK.”
Del Rio added that he believed the cruise industry “can’t survive long-term without the agent”.