Speaking to TTG, Gary Anslow, Norwegian Cruise Line regional vice-president and head of UK and Ireland, confirmed Richard Wager and Laura Croft would start their new roles on Wednesday (1 May).
Wager will support agents in the north of England and Scotland as a sales executive, while Croft will become the line’s first brand training manager. Both appointments were internal.
Anslow said increasing the team size from eight to 10 staff meant that the line could “hit the ground running” this summer. “These appointments signal our intent with travel agents,” he explained. “Every cruise line is different so it’s critical that agents select the right one for their customers.”
Earlier this month, NCL’s parent, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, announced its biggest ship order in its history, which includes four ships that can carry up to 5,000 passengers.
While there was no suggestion from Anslow NCL would homeport one of these ships in the UK, he did hint the line may offer more ex-UK sailings in the future.
This summer, NCL will operate nine ships in Europe, including its latest vessel, Norwegian Viva, which will operate a mix of departures from Lisbon, Civitavecchia (Rome) and Piraeus (Athens).
“Our proposition is all about getting guests to travel out of the UK,” said Anslow. “Naturally, if you grow our fleet as we’re doing, we will also grow the destinations we sail from,” he explained.
“The UK is a key destination that we offer. We have a lot of round-Britain cruises that sail from Southampton. The UK is an important part of what we do.”
Top 50 boost
To help boost agents’ brand knowledge and drive new-to-cruise sales, NCL is offering almost 1,000 ship visit places at nine UK and Irish ports, including Southampton, Belfast, Edinburgh, Tilbury and Tyne, until October this year.
“Last year we had our biggest ever ship visit programme – and we’re now replicating it,” he said.
He revealed NCL has reduced the size of groups to maximise agents’ time on the ships. “We’re making the groups smaller so there will be 25 agents for every NCL person that we have onboard,” said Anslow.
“We can then have more insightful conversations onboard. It gives us more of an opportunity to show off the onboard venues.”
