| P&O’s events take off

P&O Cruises has seen a “real
surge in interest” since the launch
of its corporate events product a
year ago, director of sales Ryan
Taibel told media at AIME on Tue.
When Pacific Aria and Pacific
Eden joined the fleet in Nov,
that interest intensified, with
the pitch of the vessels “really
resonating” with incentive and
event planners.
“That’s something that’s really
exciting for us and maybe not
something that we were fully
expecting at first,” Taibel said.
About 70% of the fleet’s
delegates are booked on Aria
and Eden, of which 60% are
booked on meetings and 40% on
incentives and the line has seen a
notable rise in charter enquiries.
“Our forward bookings are
looking really strong, in fact we’ve
already exceeded the total for all
of 2015 and we’re well on track
to hit our target of 12,000 pax for
2016,” Taibel added.
P&O has pinned the appeal of
cruising to event organisers down
to value for money, convenience
of having everything under one
roof and cruising’s “wow factor”.