Cruise Product Briefing
Costa Unveils New Travel Seller Booking Portal
Costa North America has unveiled a new and improved version of its “Costa Click” travel agent booking portal. Travel selling partners will find improved navigation, as well as new features. Among the changes is a new home page with easy-to-access login areas. Once logged in, travel agents will find a new design with clearly marked “new booking” and “existing booking” areas, as well as navigation bars highlighting popular functions across the top of the page. Users can switch between areas easily.
Functionalities allow travel sellers to reserve their clients’ shore excursions in advance, access shore excursions and make payments, among other tools.
“It’s important to us that we continually bring things to the table that make the booking process easier and more fluid for our travel agent partners – the new version of Costa Click is a prime example of this,” said Scott Knutson, vice president of sales for Costa Cruise Lines – North America.
The new booking site can be found at www.costaclick.com.
Mr. Italy on the Danube
Perillo Tours president Steve Perillo announced that he is chartering the riverboat MS Swiss Emerald from Tauck World Discovery for a one-week Danube River cruise to mark Perillo Tours’ 65th anniversary. The Danube River cruise, Oct. 4-16, will visit Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Durnstein, Salzburg, Linz, Passau, Regensburg and Prague.
“We’re celebrating the 65th anniversary of the company founded by my grandfather,” said Perillo, “and I wanted to show our valued guests something really special. I’ve always wanted to do a Danube cruise, and the quality of this itinerary is matched only by the elegance of the riverboat selected for the voyage.”Perillo’s spokesperson tells Travel Market Report that the tour operator does not plan to offer river cruises to Italy or to market Tauck’s river cruises. Visit www.perillotours.com.
Princess Launches Two Wave Season Promos
Princess Cruises has launched two “Wave Season” promotions that it says travel agents can use to maximize their bookings.
With the Balcony Bonanza sale agents can upgrade passengers to cabins with a private balcony for the cost of an oceanview stateroom. Pricing begins at just $899 per person for a seven-day Caribbean sailing, with balconies on a 12-day Europe sailing starting at $2,799.
Through the Denali on Sale promotion, agents can save clients up to 25% off a cruise/tour to Alaska. Cruise/tour fares for a 10-night vacation begin at $1,274 per person.
Both promotions run through Feb. 28. Customizable travel agent sales materials are available at www.onesourcecruises.com. To contact the travel agent customer service department, call (800) 421-1700.
Epic New Year for Norwegian Cruise
Norwegian Cruise Line is kicking off the New Year with a limited-time offer on new Norwegian Epic bookings made in the next two weeks. Between now and Jan. 17 your clients will benefit from a 50% reduction in required deposits and third through eighth guests in the stateroom starting at $249 on the ship’s alternating seven-day cruises to the eastern and western Caribbean. Visit www.ncl.com.
CLIA Launches Enhanced Web Site
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) at www.cruising.org has introduced a new and improved Web site designed for easier navigation. The site’s “Agency/Agent” and “Vacation/Consumer” sections have both been completely redesigned.
The new look includes a redesigned “gateway” page. Within the Vacations section, a reformatted Travel Agency Finder including a superior Cruise Expert Locator, has been added. The Cruise Expert Locator identifies CLIA agents by their respective certification levels by Zip code.
