The restructure of P&O Cruises’ trade sales team during the Covid pandemic is “no reflection of the importance of agents to the business”, according to the line’s sales chief.
Vice-president of sales and marketing Alex Delamere-White said the crisis had forced P&O to adapt how it worked with the trade and said in many cases it had accelerated pre-existing strategies.
But he insisted agents would become even more important in the future as consumers look to the trade for “reassurance and independence”.
“Even pre-Covid, the way we were engaging with the trade had started to change, in terms of fewer retail visits, following the collapse of Thomas Cook and store closures, etc,” he said.
“We were already having to adapt the way we communicate, so running more ‘one-to-many’ webinars for training, more social media, etc.
“We had to make changes to our team who were out on the road. We weren’t alone in that and they were very difficult decisions to have to make. So we now have fewer people on the road, but we have strengthened the team looking after our Shine Rewards Club, and we have strengthened the team looking after webinars, social media and emails.
“The business development managers we have are largely the same.”
Delamere-White said that pre-Covid, P&O Cruises might get 100 agents signing up to a webinar, whereas they could now attract more than 500.
“I know there’s a view that some people are Zoom-weary but, for us, this means of communication has proven highly effective. In effect, some of the methods and technologies that we were already trialling and moving towards are just being super-charged,” said Delamere-White
“In the case of social media and ‘one-to-many’ engagement, they are now central to our trade strategy, instead of being complementary to it.”