Windstar Cruises is to apply for its own Air Travel Organisers Licence to enable it to sell through more UK travel agents.
Currently, the six-ship cruise line sells packages via its UK general sales agent, The Cruise Line.
However, Augustus Lonsdale, Head of Sales UK & Ireland, said the cruise line intends to acquire its own licence to sell ATOL-protected packages, along with ABTA membership.
While Augustus admitted this will allow Windstar to sell direct to UK customers for the first time, he said the cruise line was not ‘necessarily looking at taking direct bookings’.
Currently, consumers can browse cruises and see prices in sterling on Windstar’s UK website, launched last September, but they’re directed to a travel agent or its GSA to book.
Augustus said the purpose of the ATOL was to allow agents who don’t want to book through a GSA to sell Windstar for the first time.
“Agents will also have access to our online booking portal, it will give them more flexibility,” he said. “We want to support agents, particularly with more marketing, more ship visits and we we want to make reservations easier, but The Cruise Line will remain a leading partner of ours.”
Windstar has also announced it’s opening its first overseas office in London this summer, which will be led by a new, as-yet-unnamed Global Commercial Director, who will be based in Blackfriars.
Windstar President Christopher Prelog said: “We have seen the Uk market grow and we want to keep growing it.” UK confirmed bookings are up 82% year-on-year, he added.
While the UK is Windstar’s largest market outside the US, it accounts for less than 10% of its bookings. In an attempt to significantly boost awareness of the brand, it has entered into a sponsorship deal with the O2 arena in London, which is owned by the same parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group.
The deal will see Windstar promoted on billboards outside the arena, as well as on the O2 app, and the cruise line will have a private lounge in the conference venue and tickets to events, to which it has promised trade partners will be invited.
