It has been a week dominated in the UK travel trade press by news on airports and new runways - but that doesn't mean that cruising is any less newsworthy.

Travel Weekly have led with a big interview with Azamara Club Cruises boss (and speaker at this year's Selling Cruise Conference) Larry Pimentel in which he once again reinstates that it is the current non-cruising guests that are key to the future of the industry - key he says because for Azamara they account for 22% of all guests.  Read the full interview here.

Meanwhile over on TTG Alex White Head of Sales for Princess Cruises reveals big plans for agents in 2014 with a massive WAVE period campaign - and plenty of ship visits.  Read here.

Over in the United States meanwhile talk is of massive expansion at Port Canaveral - set to be an even bigger cruise port in the future: read more here

It is in 2015 that the new ship from P&O Cruises sets sail - and this week P&O released a taster video of what the new ship will look like: watch the video here

That investment in new ships, and in refurbishment programmes is key to exceeding customer expectations, and here is news of some of the refurbishment elements of Fred Olsen's Boudicca: Read here

For cruise destinations although not strictly speaking a trade press piece - we loved this summary of cruising the Amazon from USA Today that you can read here.

Finally it's with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of industry veteran Gwyn Hughes.  Gwyn was a highly respected member of the cruise industry and made an enormous contribution in raising the profile of cruise holidays. He worked tirelessly to promote our sector of the travel industry and we are all saddened to lose such an admired colleague.  You can read more here.  Our thoughts are with his family.



Our next blog will be in January - so in the meantime we wish you a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!