News

For Immediate Release

Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ Promotion Breaks Records Once Again
5,000 Guests Booked during Annual Princess Cruises 1 Day Sale

July 13th, 2010

Expedia CruiseShipCenters has surpassed its 1 Day Sale milestone once again booking a record 5,000 guests on Princess Cruises departures during a single day. The sale, which featured Princess Cruises itineraries through to 2012, exceeded the number of guests booked during the record-breaking 2009 promotion, making it yet another significant accomplishment for the leading cruise specialists.

“This is the sixth year for the promotion which began as a unique way to showcase the world of cruising,” says Geraldine Ree, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing at Expedia CruiseShipCenters. “Even with our strong historical performance, however, we always aim to improve each year with more marketing to our prospects and clients, more training for our agents and more value for our customers,” she added.

All 130 locations and nearly 3,000 Cruise Consultants worked tirelessly with the support staff at Princess Cruises and the Expedia CruiseShipCenters head office during the months leading up to the promotion to prepare for the big day. At 12:02am (PST) on the day of the sale, the first Princess Cruise was booked online and by 7:30am, the Expedia CruiseShipCenters team had already booked a combined total of 2,681 guests as part of the 1 Day Sale promotion.

By engaging in extensive product training, following through with direct marketing, hosting cruise nights and personally calling their clients, the agents of Expedia CruiseShipCenters took their commitment to the sale to new heights this year. Over 400 Cruise Consultants attended the Super Seminar training event held in conjunction with cruise3sixty, while 519 more attended 1 Day Sale webinars held during the month before the sale. More consumers were reached during the 2010 1 Day Sale than any other Expedia CruiseShipCenters promotion in history with 1 million printed flyers mailed out and 3.7 million permission-based emails sent to members of Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ exclusive 7SEAS Club.

With new Princess deployment recently becoming available to book, the majority of customers who took advantage of the sale were securing their staterooms well in advance with 78% of bookings made not setting sail until 2011 and beyond. In addition, 56% of bookings made were for balcony staterooms.

“Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ 1 Day Sale is the biggest promotion we have with any of our partners,” said Jan Swartz, Executive Vice President Sales and Customer Service for Princess Cruises. “Each year they continue to exceed our expectations by taking their training, marketing and engagement with this sale to new levels, and their commitment shows in the results. They are an amazing partner and we look forward to many more fantastic 1 Day Sales to come.”