Planet Cruise

The cruise agency continues to run its own call centre in Portsmouth and operates a different marketing and sales strategy to its parent company’s own brand.

Planet Cruise was originally founded in 2005 by married couple Gary and Jenny West and has a long history of selling cruises through TV shopping channels which continues today.

The agency manages to differentiate itself from Iglu by specialising in tailor-making packages combining cruises with longer land-based tours and itineraries rather than simply packaging up a flight and hotel stay before and after the cruise.

This means that Planet has a much bigger focus on destinations, particularly regions such as Asia, Alaska and Australia, as well as luxury and river cruising products. This focus on destinations is reflected in the brochures that Planet publishes for its customers.

The biggest change since its takeover by Iglu is the introduction of improved technology, which has helped to “better showcase the product” online.

But Planet still sees its main asset as the experience and knowledge of its staff, which extends across both cruise lines and destinations.

Planet also continues to invest in its TV presence and in producing its own videos. The brand broadcasts live shows on satellite, Freeview and cable TV channel Ideal World as well as having its own You Tube channel.

These TV shows focus both on ships and destinations, and regularly feature experts from cruise lines as well as interviews with some of the industry’s leading bosses.

Planet continues to add to its library of videos by producing around 15 new films per week, with agents often playing leading roles in these short films. Customer testimonials are also featured on the YouTube platform.

The company uses a studio in Peterborough for its live shows and has also created its own studio within its Portsmouth office.

• planetcruise.co.uk