Thomson may offer new casual cruising option

TUI is preparing to launch a new ‘casual cruise’ programme from the summer of 2009.

Travel Insurance News - 09/10/2008

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Thomson Cruises is also considering offering casual cruises during the coming summer season.

If the cruise operator decides to do so, Thomson would then have its contemporary cruise offering and the new casual cruise offering as an alternative, operated on the Island Escape.

When the new Thomson Cruises brochure is released in December, it will showcase the offerings the summer 2009 and winter 2010 and provide full details on the new cruises.

Thomson expects that it would attract additional sales from third-party agencies as well as bringing in sales from the in-house First Choice travel agencies.

While Thomson is considering the new casual cruise possibility, Island Cruises, which has proven a favourite with first-time cruisers, will re-accommodate the 7-10 thousand passengers who are booked on Island Star, a ship that will be moved to Pullmantur, Royal Caribbean’s Spanish unit, in April of next year.

Island Cruises will make several options available to agents that they can offer to their customers, including a transfer of the cruise to another Thomson Cruise in the Mediterranean or Black Sea, at the same cost. Discounts will be offered to passengers choosing to travel on a Thomson Spirit departure from the UK to the Norway fjords and the Baltic.

Full refunds will be offered to those passengers choosing to not switch to an alternative cruise.

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