Holland America Line UK director of sales and marketing Karen Farndell chats to Gary Peters about a record-breaking year for agent engagement and sailing from the UK in 2025.

“An exceptional experience” – that’s how Karen Farndell describes her time so far at Holland America Line.

Formerly senior sales manager at Princess Cruises, Farndell joined HAL in summer last year as UK director of sales and marketing, following the change in structure that saw the HAL and Seabourn teams separated in the UK.

“One of the highlights [of my time so far] was our 150th anniversary celebration, which we shared with some of our travel partners in Rotterdam,” Farndell tells Cruise Trade News. “We’ve built up a fantastic team that I’m extremely proud of.”

Clear evidence of the line’s commitment to the UK came earlier this year, when it announced it will operate a full season of cruises out of Dover in summer 2025 – the first time it will homeport a ship in the UK in 10 years.

The cruise line is basing Pinnacle-class ship Nieuw Statendam out of Dover for 10 departures, ranging from 14 to 42 days and visiting the likes of the Canary Islands, British Isles, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Iberia and the eastern Mediterranean.

Also, in July this year, HAL reported its best sales week for the UK market since 2019. The line attributed the success to a three-day £1 deposit event.

Customers were able to pay a £1 deposit for sailings from winter 2023 to spring 2025.

The majority of bookings for the UK sales success were for cruises departing in 2024 and 2025, with the most popular destinations being Alaska, Asia and Europe.

“We’ve received an abundance of positive feedback from UK agents who share our enthusiasm over homeporting in Dover for the 2025 season,” explains Farndell.

“We wanted to offer a convenient embarkation point in England for our British guests, allowing them easier access to explore several regions around Europe on a variety of itineraries.”

Holland America Line prioritising agent support

Alongside that positive news is the fact that 2023 has been a record-breaking year for the line in terms of agent engagement.

The line hosted 50 agents on three Alaska fam trips, as well as 48 on an 11-day Iberian Adventure cruise. What’s more, hundreds of others were able to experience HAL ships at various visit days across the UK.

“I’ve been overwhelmed at the fam trip feedback we’ve received from travel agents and this shines through in the survey results where agents tell us that their knowledge and confidence has significantly increased,” explains Farndell.

For next year, Farndell says HAL “hopes to get close to that number… but we’ll likely be a bit more selective in 2024”, adding: “We’ll continue to maximise our sales with agents first and then find opportunities for fam space to showcase our product and new destinations.

“We’ll have a programme in place so that agents can learn about our product to increase sales.”

Improvements are also in the pipeline for agent resources, confirms Farndell. “Throughout this next year, we’ll continue investing in support tools for our agent partners”, she says.

“For instance, we’ve created a new resource – the cruise tour finder to help agents determine the best land tour options to add to an Alaska cruise.

“We also regularly refresh resources on GOHAL.com, our agent-specific site providing marketing tools, info on campaigns and training opportunities.

“Another training resource we will enhance is HAL Academy, which is designed to increase agents’ knowledge and confidence in the brand.”

With the UK team now at “full complement, which means we are in a great position as we enter 2024”, the future could very feasibly see more records broken.