Iglu Cruise

The company also runs another specialist cruise agency Planet Cruise but this operates as a separate brand with its own dedicated call centre.

London-based Iglu wanted to use the same online sales business model for selling cruise as it had successfully introduced for skiing holidays in the late 1990s.

Cruise marketing had previously been dominated by newspaper advertising and direct mail campaigns, and Iglu initially had to convince the cruise lines about the merit of online sales.

Iglu’s cruise business really started to take off when the major cruise lines began introducing more capacity and bigger ships into the UK market, including P&O’s Ventura and Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas which made their debuts in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

These ships were designed to target new types of cruise passengers, particularly families and younger clients – markets that Iglu already served through its online model for the skiing market.

Iglu puts much of its success – cruises sales have grown by 25% over the last year - down to its online cruise search engine, which has been built inhouse, and is backed up by a call centre in Wimbledon.

Recent initiatives include the introduction of river cruising and the ability for customers to view itineraries that they can pre-register for.

Improving mobile responsiveness has also been a key goal – Iglu’s app allows people to search for prices and save or share searches, as well as sending “push” notifications about special offers to users.

Iglu has also concentrated on selling more tailor-made cruise packages, which have risen 35% year-on-year, and has produced brochures for key destinations such as Alaska for clients.

The agency emphasises its “breadth of choice” and the “ability to sell all the cruise lines” which has helped it achieve high levels of customer retention and new-to-cruise bookings.

• iglucruise.com