On The Deck: Andrew McKenna

If you’ve been following the news recently you cannot have failed to notice that things have certainly been busy at Pullmantur. The Spanish cruise line – owned by Royal Caribbean and renowned for its all-inclusive offering  – this week made the joint announcement that it would be joining the Association of Cruise Experts (ACE) and – through Major Travel, its UK GSA – releasing its first UK brochure. The push into the UK market is also twinned with a big agent incentive: Pullmantur is offering the trade a 14% commission rate and a highly valuable offering where children just pay port taxes and there is no single parent supplement. So a single parent going away with a child will not have to pay full price for their young one – introducing a massive saving. Feeling incentivised? We spoke to Andrew McKenna director of cruise for Major Travel to find out more.

How did the decision to join ACE come about?
For us, 2012 was about getting the UK market started and bringing the media and around 100 agents down to see to Dover to see the ship. The PSA and ACE are recognised in the industry as being the cruise forum for everything – an inclusive body – and especially now that they’re part of CLIA.  It was really a no brainer and joining is the best way of us driving our message out to the trade.

What does Pullmantur offer agents?
We have gone down the root of making everything a level playing field: every agent will make 14% commission regardless of how big or small they are. With cruise lines cutting commissions everywhere, this is about us saying that: we’re new to the market and are giving great commission and offering an innovative deal with the single parent supplement. So the value for money message is there. What better way to do that than join ACE and PSA? If you want to be taken seriously within the UK market you have to be a member of those organisations.

How are you looking to crack the UK market?
For us the biggest thing is to help train the trade, which can then send the message out to the consumer. We’re looking at putting webinars out to agents who can learn the product line; with ACE having a section on their site which will also have an online training module too. We also go round to companies and bring the cakes along too! This year we have the Empress in Dover three times – so that’ll be three different fam trips. As many staff as possible will come to these – and when you experience it you get the whole all-inclusive experience too and can drink, or not drink, as much as you want. The bosses sometimes don’t want to hear that though.

How important is the brochure launch to Major and Pullmantur?
It was very hectic but for us but it is very important to have a brochure. We’re being displayed in all TUI’s stores now for instance – so that’s obviously 100s of positions across the country. For us we needed to grasp the opportunity and also let customers have something they could walk out with. The brochure is totally focused towards our trade partners – even to the point that the phone number on the back of the book will take the caller through to our trade department, which will transfer the call back to the travel agent. We’ve been around for 38 years and have always been trade friendly – why change that?

What is the USP for Pullmantur?
The all-inclusive factor is really our selling point. You’ve paid for your flights, transfers and cruise – you can pre-pay your gratuities or not and that is it; you don’t have to worry about having another glass of wine or how many cokes your kids have. If you’re on a hot island your beer’s warm – you can get another one. We’re not looking to undercut the market  – but we want to give value for money for couples, families and those who want to visit those ports of call and have a real interest in the destination.