Travel Agent - August 20, 2007 - (Page 20)

Hot Cruise Ports: COVER STORY 2008 and Beyond Be prepared: we chart the new hot spots your clients will be asking about BY DAVID EISEN deisen@questex.com T 20 he cruise lines and its patrons are always on the lookout for new and exciting ports of call. Along with indoctrinating firsttimers, finding new entry points is valuable toward sustaining the industry and keeping it fresh. While favorite ports of call remain, some new, as of yet fully tapped ports are coming to the forefront and giving the cruise lines more options in fashioning their itineraries. For cruisers, experiencing new destinations gives them the impulse to keep coming back for more—music to the cruise lines’ ears. Travel Agent spoke with cruise lines and TravelAgent travel agents alike to gauge where the new hot destinations are and why they are gaining such traction. No doubt, you will have heard of many of the ports (not even the cruise lines can create new cities—though they can create their own islands), but you may not have known why they are exploding on the scene. Here is what we found, so you can be prepared when your clients walk through the door and ask, “Where’s the go-to destination?” St. Petersburg, Russia and the Baltics To some, St. Petersburg in Russia conjures images of a cold, communist holdover, where the sun doesn’t shine and winters are relentless. While they are right about the winter (temperatures are frosty), the summer months are quite pleasant. And it doesn’t take a historian to know that Russia isn’t the Soviet Union. When former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed “Glasnost,” perhaps it was an invitation for the cruise lines. They bit. Today, St. Petersburg is one of the hottest European destinations, and figures into most Baltic itineraries. The city is famous for its architectural design that comes alive in landmarks such as the Kazan Cathedral and the Summer Palaces. The city also has a Venetian quality, with its contiguous canals that run under a total of 342 bridges. The city pops with excitement and travel agents are seeing demand rise. “From my point of view, St. Petersburg is the leading port in Europe,” says Yuval Nissan, manager of Prestige Travel & Cruises in Las Vegas, adding that cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam are benefiting from St. Petersburg’s August 20, 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Travel Agent - August 20, 2007

Contents Editor's Letter News You Can Use Agenda: Fam Trips, Calendar of Events, Deal of the Week Cover Story: Hot Cruise Ports: 2008 and Beyond Central & South America: Costa Rica’s New Resort Europe: Heathrow Upgrades Hawaii: Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa Caribbean: Westin’s Plans in the D.R. Still on Track Africa: Pacific Delight Tours’ South Africa Itinerary Hotels: West Virginia Icon Gets Makeover Tech Advisor: Search Engine Optimization 101 Spa Luxury Travel Expo Update Advertisers’ Information Classified Marketplace People & Places

Travel Agent - August 20, 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.