Having worked overseas with Thomson Holidays for several years I have to say I’m finding it very difficult to get my head round the recent name change to ‘Marella Cruises’.
Thomson had always been a very favourable brand name for a huge volume of overseas package Holidays over the years, so the gradual change over to the TUI brand name, I felt happened in a timely manner for passengers to get their head around it. It was such a shame to see the Thomson brand name disappear but we still had Thomson Cruises out their flying the flag, however I have to say I’m a little sad to see the Thomson brand now completely disappear.
Marella, meaning ‘shining sea’ in Celtic, was selected to make the cruise line ‘stand out in the cruise market’ and to give it its own identity from the company’s European cruise brand, Tui Cruises.
However I can safely say I don’t think us Brits are really catching on and still now after almost six months, most passengers I’ve spoken to including myself are still referring to them as good old Thomson.
It just goes to show how important a brand name is and how us mere mortals come to love and have complete faith and trust in a product. Even though it’s the same product, just by renaming it, it just does not seem right. I think Marella have got a long way to go to get their good old regular passengers on-board with this one.
For passengers who have booked with us over the last few years they may not be aware we originally started out as Victoria Travel. It’s funny I still have passengers who call us that today even though our Company name Cruise.co.uk has been in place now for a few years.
What do you think, are you still a Thomson fan or is it Marella all the way from now on?………….