HOW CRUISING HAS CHANGED ME!!!

I really don’t feel it, but this year is my 27th in the cruise industry and I can tell you, times really have changed. Actually, my passion with cruise ships goes back much further than that. In fact, I have been in the travel industry 42 years and I still feel my story started only yesterday. Still so much to learn and discover, and the world has become so much more affordable and accessible.

Even before I joined a well known, and long established, Manchester tour operator and travel agency back in 1975, with my family, we had been cruising since I was a young child. Does anyone still remember Sitmar Lines and Chandris? Moreso, could any of my Cruise.co.uk colleagues say they had cruised on those lines? Well, I can. We cruised on them a great many times, long before I ever chose to get into this business.

My passion for cruising has stuck with me since those early days and so, conservatively, I often tell callers that I have cruised well over hundred times and I have vast firsthand knowledge.

There is a great deal that could be written as to exactly how the business has changed, but we would be here for days, and I cannot imagine that readers of my blog would be all that interested in a lot of the technical stuff.

What intrigues and fascinates me is the way the cruise industry continues to thrive.

When I first started out in this business, establishing and running my own cruise agency, a “cruise only” agency was indeed a rare thing. The early days saw rapid growth for the agents with vision who could see that this was a specialised area of travel and many, like my own agency, did exceedingly well. However, in later years, the internet, online shopping, cheaper and cheaper offers slowly, but surely, diluted the business and the successful model, many of the agents relied on, started to change. Many companies, and many industry colleagues, fell by the wayside, and I was fortunate that my model was rather unique and did not rely on the business that many of my competitors relied on.

Still, as they say, all good things come to an end. By October 2015, I knew it was time, even for me, to change and, to cut a long story short, I arrived at Cruise.co.uk. I only wish I had made the move before I did…    but then how often do we say that.

Moving forward, the cruise industry is growing at a phenominal rate. Only this week, Norwegian Cruise Line placed a 3.2 billion Euro order for four cruise ships to be delivered annually starting in 2022. They are not alone. Many of the big players in this business are signing firm orders for new ships.

Here’s a sobering thought to end on. Approximately 72% of the earth’s surface is sea, so only 28% is actually land. Cruises continue to discover ever more unusual destinations to take their guests to. The world has become so much more affordable and accessible and added to which, people are living longer, and wanting to get more out of life.

If you’re reading this, and haven’t yet cruised, all I can say is, you haven’t holidayed yet. No holiday, bar none, beats cruising. Yes, I might be passionate about cruising but, ask any of the thousands of people that have cruised with me over the past 27 years, and they’ll all say the same. Once they had cruised, they have never looked back.

As always, I am as keen as ever to share my cruise memories with my clients. Book your next cruise with me and you will have started a relationship with not just a very different travel agent, but with one where your future travels will only be limited by our joint imaginations!