Thursday May 15th

It has been quite an impressive show for the cruise industry in the last 7 days with major events in Southampton and London reinforcing the fact that there is no industry like cruise!

On Thursday last week Princess Cruises unveiled a new 4 part series for ITV this summer following the going's on aboard Royal Princess - a move that Princess hopes will give the whole industry a boost: Read here

The following day attention turned to Cunard and the celebrations to mark the 10th Anniversary of Queen Mary 2 in Southampton in the presence of HRH Prince Philip.  It was widely covered in trade and consumer titles - read the travel weekly coverage here - there is a lovely piece in the Telegraph that can be read here - and CLIA members can view a summary video on the home page at www.cruiseexperts.org 

On Sunday and Monday SeaDream Yacht Club hosted a large group of travel agents as SeaDream I moored on the Thames - helping us showcase the joys of cruising to all Londoners.  See our images here.

And not to be outdone MSC Cruises had their own headlines this week as it took part in celebrations in Hamburg in rather unique style - watch here

In a flurry of other activity and announcements Royal Caribbean announce a 4th Oasis Class cruise ship to be built for delivery in 2018. Read here

Over at the TTG Luxury event Jo Rzymowska of Celebrity Cruises (and Chair of CLIA UK & Ireland) told the audience that luxury does not necessarily mean small ships - read here

Staying with Celebrity Cruises - they announced the introduction of maritime research equipment on Equinox in a bid to support marine conservation organisations - read here

And there was a great opion piece from Richard Twynam of Azamara Club Cruises on the role of digital in marketing to cruise customers: read here

Finally - if you have not already done so then do not miss the May CLIA UK & Ireland Informer packed full of lots of good stuff - read here

We are at the Selling Cruise Conference next Thursday - look forward to seeing you there!