Comment: CLIA should stick to its strengths

Comment: CLIA should stick to its strengths
By admin


As cruising has grown in recent years, so too has the sector’s annual awards extravaganza.

Not so many years ago, very few cruise ships were operating in Australia. And of those that were plying the Pacific, the reputation was none too special, to put it generously.

The size and standing of the industry was reflected in the awards night, a low profile affair held in small venues and attended by relatively few people.

How times have changed.

Last Saturday, the night of the 2013 Cruise Industry Awards, hundreds of agents, wholesalers and cruise lines (both the ocean and river varieties) squeezed into Doltone House Hyde Park Ballroom for the glitzy black tie event.

If the modest occasions of a decade ago were representative of the poor state of the industry back then, Saturday’s event illustrated just how far cruising has come – even if trumpeting each Carnival brand with pretty ordinary renditions of well-known songs was a bit retro.

Christine Duffy, president and chief executive of the Cruise Lines International Association, spoke with glowing praise of the Australian industry and the strides it has made over the past decade. Quite whether it can hit the 10% penetration rate suggested by Carnival Australia chief executive Ann Sherry is doubtful, a little fanciful even, but it’s clear the industry is in decent shape.

What is also a touch fanciful is Duffy’s plan to transform CLIA into a brand that consumer’s look for when booking a cruise. As Travel Today reported on Monday, Duffy wants CLIA certification to be “a globally recognised credential. A good housekeeping seal of approval that travellers will look for.”

Building a consumer brand, which essentially is what Duffy is suggesting, is a hugely time consuming and costly exercise. No one outside of the industry has even heard of CLIA, let alone know what it does and what it stands for, so reaching a stage where consumers actively look for CLIA certification as a “seal of approval” is extremely unlikely ever to happen.

It’s the quality of the service that will keep consumer’s booking through travel agents, not a sign in a window. And that quality is achieved through decent training – which is exactly what CLIA provides.

CLIA should stick to what it’s good at it, namely training, lobbying and generally looking after the interests of cruise lines. Attempting to grow consumer awareness would be an unnecessary distraction.   

Back to the awards themselves, it was a shame that the master of ceremonies, Hamish McLachlan – the host, so I read, of Channel 7’s Sunday morning AFL Game Day – chose to hammer through proceedings without so much as pausing for breath. He clearly had somewhere else to be.

It’s true that awards can drag on interminably, but the whirlwind nature of McLachlan’s performance was, I thought, extraordinary. Award winners were whisked on and off the stage in seconds. And don’t get me started on his persistent and infuriating “shush, shush, shush” to the audience. Controlling an awards night is a difficult gig, particularly when travel industry folk and wine find themselves in the same room. But there are ways of doing it without being condescending.

I overheard one woman plotting to knock his block off. She’d have been first in a long queue.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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