Princess Cruises has encouraged its agent partners to push its 2025 itineraries as capacity for this year “maxes out”

This was the message from the line’s vice president of UK and European sales Eithne Williamson, who told Cruise Trade News the launch of its most recent vessel, Sun Princess, has led to a sharp uptick in consumer demand for the brand.

“We’ve got little pockets of availability for 2024,” she said. “I had planned on cruising on board Sun Princess in August, but we’re oversold so I’ll have to look elsewhere.”

With the addition of Sun Princess to its fleet ahead of the launch of sister ship Star Princess in 2025, the line will need to fill an additional 8,600 spaces.

“It’s always important for us to bring new-to-brand and new-to-cruise customers in, and even more so now with the additional capacity,” Williamson explained.

“We really value our guests who have experienced Princess and love the brand, and we want them to keep coming back, but we are increasing the number of ships, so it’s important for us to make sure we’re attracting new people to the brand.”

‘Agents critical to the success of entire cruise market,’ Princess UK boss says

Williamson’s aims of increasing the number of holidaymakers opting for a cruise are not limited to the Princess brand. “It’s important for the whole cruise industry to help bring people to cruising and expand that opportunity by demonstrating the value of holidays-at-sea,” she added.

Critical to this mission will be the line’s agent partners. To support the trade ahead of its new ship launches, the line will roll out a range of marketing materials towards the end of the year as well as hosting a number of agents on board.

Across the ship’s first two cruises, the line welcomed more than 200 UK agents, which, Williamson said, highlights their importance.

“This year we’ll have about 500 agents [on board] in total as we’ve also got opportunities through ship visits and fam trips.

“Travel agents aren’t just important to us, they’re key to the success of the whole market. It’s about the relationship we have with them so they understand what Princess brings, and there’s no better way of doing that than getting them on board.”