Celestyal Cruises invites guests to 'Sea the Unseen'

Celestyal Cruises welcomed an invited audience of travel agents and media to an event in Toronto last night aimed at promoting its itineraries in Cuba and the Greek Islands.

Canadian executives from Celestyal were joined by Pythagoras Nagos, vice president, sales and Nicolaos Filippidis, president, MCC, Inc, Celestyal Cruises marketing representative in North America, to provide information and updates on the company’s plans for 2017 and 2018.

A presentation by Christine Chiang, vice president, sales and marketing, Canada, MCC, Inc., and Haley Chiappino, sales manager, Eastern Ontario, MCC, Inc., highlighted the various programs operated by Celestyal, with new developments in 2018 including the replacement of Celestyal Crystal with Celestyal Majesty, beginning with the January 2018 Cuba sailing.

The Crystal will move to Greece, replacing the Celestyal Nefeli, while Celestyal Olympia will also make its return. The company will also repeat its 2017 program in Greece next year, including selected short excursions and the return of its unlimited bar and beverage drinks package.

Chiang also lauded Celestyal’s recent success at the 2017 Tourism Awards, which saw it claim five honours. The company won four Gold awards: Tourism Season Expanding Initiatives – Greek Tourism Product Enrichment; Guest Service Excellence; Gastronomic Tourism; Corporate Identity – Corporate Reputation Management-Branding; and one Silver award – for Integrated Marketing Campaign.

Nicolaos Filippidis, president, MCC, Inc., Celestyal Cruises marketing representative in North America

Speaking to PAX, Filippidis said that he hoped the evening would help acquaint agents with Celestyal’s range of offerings. “This is to familiarize the agents in the area with our products. Agents are the established distribution network for our products – this is what helps us,” he said. “It gets the message out to talk about our products and about who we are. We’re a unique niche product that needs some explaining to be successful.”

Filippidis emphasized the importance the company places on its Canadian business. “The Canadian market is very important for us, because we started the Cuba program for the Canadians,” he said. “Tonight, we’re hoping to get the attention of every travel agent for Greece and Cuba.”

Nagos told PAX that Celestyal offered an unorthodox but unique product. “The reason for coming here is that this is a very peculiar product, both in Cuba as well as the Aegean Islands,” he said. “The simple explanation is that it is an authentic product. The itinerary we have in Cuba is a very unusual one, with the circumnavigation of Cuba. Because of the size of our vessels, we are able to call on ports with limited infrastructure, which gives us an opportunity to really show our passengers the beauty of the destination.”

He also highlighted the advantages that agents and customers alike could gain from availing of Celestyal products. “The products we are going to show tonight are inclusive ones,” he added. “Agents, when selling our product, will sell something that is unique – they can make money selling the cruise, short excursions and drinks, while passengers have an easier life because they know up front what money they’re going to spend for their cruise… I think it’s a great opportunity to see cruising from a niche cruise operator in a different style.”