A new collection of stay & cruise holiday options is being launched by Kuoni, which will be available for customers to book as part of worldwide tailor-made itineraries through its entire retail network and travel agents.

Kuoni will be working with a number of handpicked cruise operators and its launch partners include Celebrity, Azamara, Seabourn, Cunard, Crystal, Regent and Compagnie du Ponant.

It’s a much bigger and wider programme of cruise options than Kuoni has ever had before - previously the programme has been very specialist and relatively small, for example the Orient Express cruises in Burma with the Road to Mandalay and new for 2014 the Orcaella; Antarctica cruise (Antarctica XXI)and Galapagos cruises, Yacht La Pinta & Isabela II. 

The cruise options will be available to book from November in preparation for the peak January sales campaign.

Derek Jones, managing director of Kuoni UK said: “Our own retail network has grown over the last five years and we now have 22 high street travel stores, four John Lewis concessions with another four due to open later this year and six partnership stores.  They’re doing really well – however we understand that our customers want to book different types of holidays with us – and that includes cruise.”

He added: “We have thousands of loyal Kuoni customers, many who book with us time and time again, so we want to introduce new customers who may not have previously considered a cruise option to the market.”

The Kuoni cruise collection will focus on stay and cruise as part of a broader travel itinerary, but there will also be a selection of ex-UK cruises, for example Celebrity to the Fijords in summer and the iconic QM2 from Southampton to New York.

*Some examples of Kuoni’s stay & cruise itineraries include an 11 night USA and Caribbean holiday, embarking on a seven night Caribbean voyage aboard the Celebrity Silhouette and a four night stay at the Gotham Hotel in New York with an Artisan tour and New York Helicopter tour.

And a 23 night holiday to Australia with a three night stay in Perth, including a Perth and Fremantle city tour and day visit to Rottest Island and 17 nights aboard the Celebrity Solstice followed by three nights in Sydney with a Blue Mountain eco adventure.

There will be a new Kuoni branded Celebrity cruise brochure in time for January.

As well as the dedicated Celebrity brochure, the plan is to promote cruise options throughout Kuoni’s collection of destination-themed brochures and there will be a new cruise section on the Kuoni website, with inspiring travel content. 

There will also be a special marketing brochure for turn-of-year, highlighting a wide range of inspiring holidays, and cruise will take centre stage in that for the first time. 

Cruise will also be incorporated in the second edition Worldwide brochure at the end of November, which is the company’s flagship travel bible with pages dedicated to different cruise options.

The cruise collection will be available to book through all of Kuoni’s high street travel stores, concessions at John Lewis, partnership stores, Kuoni homeworkers and through travel agents.

Jo Rzymowska, AVP & General Manager, UK & Ireland, Celebrity Cruises: “We are delighted that Kuoni is setting up a bespoke cruise team and programme and believe that there is great synergy between our brands.”