Joel Katz, managing director, CLIA Australasia
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF CRUISING
The largest cruise conference in the southern hemisphere — Cruise360 Australasia — will return to Australia in August. Following last year’s sold-out conference, more than 500 delegates are expected to attend the fifth Cruise360 conference, which will take place on Friday August 31, in Sydney.
Cruise360 Australasia is a great opportunity for cruise-focused travel professionals to get together and share insights and knowledge about the booming cruise industry. The new conference format introduced last year will continue to be enhanced and will see further networking opportunities and professional development break-out sessions, as well as seminars and analysis into current cruise and travel industry trends. Cruise360’s dynamic trade show will give conference attendees the chance to meet with cruise line representatives as well as other significant cruise-related suppliers while also offering plenty of opportunities for networking and relationship-building.
For the first time, CLIA is extending Cruise360 to two days, with delegates having the opportunity to join a ship inspection of Carnival Spirit on Thursday August 30 on a first come first served basis. This will be followed by an exciting new addition to the Cruise360 Australia program; a Destination Showcase offering delegates to learn about the many and varied destinations and ports that CLIA Cruise Line members sail to.
Cruise360 2018 will once again feature an incredible speaker line-up of global industry leaders. CLIA is very excited and honoured to announce that two of our industry’s top leaders will participate with CLIA president and CEO Cindy D’Aoust, and Norwegian Cruise Line president and COO Andy Stewart, confirmed as the first keynote speakers. Their addresses will be a highlight of Cruise360 so we’re thrilled they’ve agreed to share their knowledge with our delegates.
Cruise360 has grown into a must attend event on the cruise calendar. But don’t just take our word for it. We surveyed delegates who attended last year’s event and almost all (98 per cent) rated Cruise360 as a worthwhile event to attend, while most (88 per cent) said they were likely to recommend the event to a colleague.
Attendees at Cruise360 include travel agency owners, travel agent members as well as cruise lines, ports and destination representatives, industry suppliers and CLIA executive partners.
Early bird tickets are now available for a limited time at www.cruising.org.au and online bookings can also be made for the Cruise360 ship inspection with CLIA urging agents to act quickly given limited space and last year’s conference selling out.
