November 2024 will kick off the cruise lines first-ever winter season, with a seven-night Desert Days voyage seeing Celestyal Journey visiting four new countries and six new ports of call in the Persian Gulf.
The cruise line's inaugural winter voyage will sail until January 18th, 2025, before Celestyal Journey returns to its 'core' programme in April. The 'Desert Days' voyage will return annually as a permanent fixture of Celestyal's winter season.
2024 and 2025 options are on sale now and are featured in the current Wave promotion that offers 50% off all Celestyal Plus+ Experience packages, reduced single supplements (30%) and low child fares.
Lee Haslett, chief commercial officer, said that feedback on the port-intensive nature of the existing Celestyal journeys meant that the Persian Gulf is perfectly primed to deliver "those unmissable moments our clients and trade partners love, blending smaller shoreside experiences with the bigger bucket-list ones."
The region is also backed by "strong regional airlift, as well as to and from the UK," leading Lee to conclude that the choice of winter destinations is "a massive opportunity for travel agents in the UK."
Alongside the season and destination expansion, the cruise line has also confirmed plans to double its brand, marketing and communications team with six further appointments (including trade marketing executive). This sails on the wave of 2023's announcement that the UK trade team will be doubled in 2024.
Janet Parton, VP of business development, said the investment is "to support and commit to growing our travel agent business", with Lee echoing the sentiment and emphasising that "our travel agent partners are pivotal in our growth."
Part of that promised trade investment includes the hope that at least 100 trade partners join the cruise line on board in 2024. Janet continued, saying the team is "so proud of our investment in the fleet" and, acknowledging there is no better way for agents to sell than to draw on first-hand experience, "we want to get as many travel agents on board as we can."
With the team careful not to reveal further details on Celestyal's continued momentum, it's anticipated that more news will come as Journey and Discovery get closer to returning to the seas in March.
