3 October 2016
The Portsmouth Cruise Forum re-launched from the Cruise Britain stand at the Seatrade Cruise Med event in Tenerife.
The Portsmouth Destination Marketing Partnership subgroup sees Portsmouth City Council, key attractions and activity providers, as well as local specialist tour operator, More Than a Tour working together with cruise industry partners to encourage more of their passengers to explore and experience new and innovative destination experiences across the City.
The announcement was made on the Cruise Britain stand at Seatrade Cruise Med. The event brings together the global community of senior cruise industry stakeholders and was a perfect setting for the announcement. The CLIA Ports and Destination summit held alongside the event, focused on shore excursion (shorex) innovation and the need for collaboration across the industry, including much closer links with local destinations to ensure sustainability, influence and opportunity.
Rupert Taylor, Portsmouth International Port Harbour Master and Chair of the cruise forum said “The relaunch of the cruise forum marks a new and exciting approach to delivering innovation in shore excursions. The conference has underlined the need for a new approach and Portsmouth International Port encourages all tour operators to drive necessary change in the market, which has been highlighted in Tenerife”.
Paul Sherry, More Than a Tour Sales and Marketing Director is also Vice Chair of the forum. He said “I am delighted to be involved in the Portsmouth cruise forum, working in partnership with colleagues across Portsmouth to create this alliance. This is further evidence that a significant change is underway in the move from shorex to destination immersion and the forum provides the platform for real innovation.
As local destinations we are responsible for the promotion and protection of our environments. The pro-active engagement with destinations will sustain shorex, which provide a myriad of new and exciting opportunities that are currently untapped. We have already hosted the Phoenix Reisen management team on an exclusive and exciting familiarisation trip of Portsmouth and look forward to hosting other cruise line partners in due course”.
For further information please contact Emma Gaisford/Julie Blackwell on 01256 631696 or email julie.blackwell@purple-agency.com or emma.gaisford@purple-agency.com