Havila Voyages has pledged to increase investment in the UK trade just days after saying it would be prioritising direct bookings

Last week, the company shared its Q2 earnings report in which it stated: “We will continue to prioritise direct bookings,” which contradicted its recent commitment to the trade, emphasised by the appointment of Robin Griffiths as its first-ever strategic account manager.

Cruise Trade News challenged the line on how that direction would impact its relationship with agents, to which Havila emphasised it is actually upping its investment in the UK trade, contrary to its previous statement.

Chief executive Bent Martini said the trade is “essential” for the growth of the brand, with agents playing an “important part of our future”.

“Trade sales remain a vital and strategic part of our growth ambitions and we are increasing our investment in the trade, not reducing it,” he said. “We believe that having a healthy, well-developed B2B network remains essential to our long-term success.

“While we sell through a number of different channels across the globe, in the UK we are committed to investing in our B2B partnerships and working even more closely with the trade going forward.”

He continued: “Our ambition in the UK is to make it easier for our trade partners to sell our product, strengthen collaboration in key markets and grow our trade business. With that in mind, we are increasing our investment in our UK trade partnerships, attending more trade events than ever before and have developed a programme of agent visits for the coming months.”

He added: “Our B2B partners are an important part of our future. We value the role they play in reaching customers and growing our business in international markets and we look forward to continuing to invest in these partnerships and growing together.”