Well-known travel agency executive Dwain Wall is joining the move to establish cruising in China. He's joined a new cruise website aimed at Chinese-speaking travel agents and consumers.
Expected to officially launch in the second quarter of 2015, WorldCruise.cn is a bilingual website that will provide data and information on more than 60 cruise lines, as well as real-time booking capabilities. Chinese travelers can utilize WorldCruise.cn to search and book cruises, plan and book shore excursions, take advantage of chartered cruises and book air/cruise/land travel packages.
Dwain Wall will serve as co-president and chief operating officer of WorldCruise.cn. Wall recently left a position as senior vice president of agency and trade relations at the Cruise Lines International Association. He joined CLIA in January after leaving CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. in November 2013, where he had been senior vice president and general manager.
"There are currently more than 3 million travel agents in China, but only a few hundred sell cruise product," Wall said. "According to China's executive vice president of tourism, of the more than 100 million Chinese tourists who travel abroad each year, only 0.6 percent chose cruise travel in 2013. China is ahead in so many ways, but I've been astounded to learn how much opportunity exists for education and growth within the Chinese cruise sector. When you look at the size of the market and the fact that we've barely scratched the surface, you realize how exciting of a time this truly is for the cruise industry."
WorldCruise.cn will feature a search engine, online booking capabilities, research and FAQs on travel products, shore excursion options, ship reviews, destination backgrounders and limited-time special offers.
Chinese travel agents will be given a user name and login to access WorldCruise.cn. There, they can search live cruise and shore excursion inventory with real-time pricing and availability, booking their clients immediately for the first time ever. Agents can also create their own customized cruise packages and land tours, opening up booking to other agents and consumers.
When it goes live, the site will also be mobile, with an iPAD-friendly version and smartphone app. These platforms can be utilized for research and education, but also for real-time pricing, availability and booking.
Since the Chinese cruise market is relatively small at this time but has huge potential for growth, WorldCruise.cn will provide online training programs and business development strategies to help educate Chinese agents on the cruise industry. Offline training will feature sessions by senior managers from the world's leading cruise lines, and service will be provided on the back end.
"While online cruise booking and online travel agencies have existed for some time in the United States, Chinese-speaking travelers have never seen anything like this," Wall said. "The best part is that WorldCruise.cn takes what we are doing well in the United States and layers on innovative, proprietary technology to advance the capabilities even further. This is the wave of the future for not only the Chinese cruise industry, but the cruise industry as a whole."
WorldCruise.cn was created by Steven Donne, who is CEO and chairman of the board; Jessica Lee, co-president-sales, marketing and operations); and Evgeny Demchenko, chief technology officer, who have decades of experience across various segments of the international travel industry.
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