Hays Travel has seen cruise bookings increase from 26% to 29% of its total business over the past 12 months, and it is expecting to grow to 33% by 2027.
Head of Cruise Catriona Parsons is urging agents to use in-house operator Vista for fly-cruises and target the luxury market to increase sales.
Vista has 44 cruise line partners, it has grown its specialist cruise team from 14 to 18 people since it launched last spring, and it has a target of 400,000 cruise customers by 2027.
“We need to look at different ways to grow our cruise business,” said Catriona. “One of our biggest opportunities is through Vista. We have cruises and flights available now up until 2027 to book. Our focused cruise team are also on hand to give our retail teams that extra bit of help or information they may need to sell a certain product.”
Catriona wants more Hays agents to attend cruise events next year, including up to 50 at the CLIA RiverView Conference in March and 150 at the CLIA Conference in Southampton in June.
Last month, the company held it’s first conference on a river ship onboard Riviera Radiance.
Hays is also continuing to host full ship charters on Ambassador Cruise Line, including a ‘Back to the Beat’ party cruise on Ambition in August 2027, which is already 80% sold.
Catriona is urging agents to promote luxury and expedition cruises to their customers going into 2026. “There are so many aspects to cruising and I really want there to be a big focus on luxury and expedition. We will host a luxury focus week across the whole company in March, with training for staff and supplier takeovers,” she said.
Catriona added that agents should ensure at least a third of their window displays and social media are cruise-focused.
