Seabourn UK and Ireland managing director Lynn Narraway says that luxury cruise customers are beginning to commit to booking holidays, as the line continues to push its product earlier than ever before.

We know from speaking with our loyal guests and travel partners that within the luxury sector there is considerable pent-up demand to cruise again.

There is a growth in confidence among these consumers to commit to having an incredible, exotic holiday to look forward to, whether that is in 2021, 2022 or even 2023.

January’s news regarding the vaccine has brought with it a healthy increase in business for later this year and for 2022, especially. With this in mind, Seabourn is launching new product even earlier, alongside strong campaigns and booking incentives.

By early February, for example, travel partners will be able to reserve their clients their choice of suite on our 2023 Grand Voyages. Both our Grand World and Grand South America & Antarctica cruises depart from Miami on 6 January 2023 and come with very attractive early booking amenities.

We are also launching 2022 Europe, Alaska and Canada cruises in early February in order to offer guests the chance to book now and benefit from our View & Verandah campaign offers.

Backing travel partners

We fully understand and appreciate the role our travel agent partners play in the success of our industry. To that end, we have been committed to supporting partners throughout the last year by protecting 100 per cent commission on paid bookings.

Partners can also access tools to help them grow their luxury business, via our Insider newsletter, personal video calls with our business development team and our Seabourn Academy online learning.

What’s more, agents can opt in to our Groups Programme, where they can hold a minimum of just five double occupancy suites per voyage for their clients to enjoy extra on-board spend (and the agent partner enhanced commission).

It is our intention to launch Seabourn’s annual Partner Appreciation event later this year, which is likely to include an enhanced Groups offer among many other helpful learning and business tools.

We know that travellers are thinking more about the environmental impact of their holidays. When our purpose-built PC6 ultra-luxury expedition ship Seabourn Venture arrives in December 2021, she will definitely tick many of these boxes.

The ship will run on marine gas oil, which is the most preferred clean fuel used on ships, for 365 days a year. She will also be equipped with a dynamic positioning system, so will never need to drop anchor.

Seabourn is also moving to e-documents for all cruises, which agent partners or their clients may download directly from the booked guests (password protected) area of the website.

While CLIA Global is still working very diligently on our behalf to return to cruise again, all our brands are taking this opportunity to prepare our ships for a return to service.

Carnival Corporation has always adhered to the highest and strictest health and safety protocols within travel, and we know that when our guests are ready to join us for the most fantastic cruise experiences, then we will be ready to welcome them.