Queen Anne to host 500 agents within first month

Cunard will welcome 500 travel agents on board new ship Queen Anne within the first month of its launch.

Queen Anne, which will be the line’s first new ship in 14 years, is scheduled to enter service in May 2024 with a maiden voyage from Southampton to Lisbon.

Vice-president for marketing and sales Angus Struthers said agents will be “critical” to the ship’s success, which represents a 44% capacity increase for the line.

Speaking to Travel Weekly at a shipyard visit in Venice, he said: “We’ve got a lot of work to do to ensure our agent partners are educated on Queen Anne, and although we have been putting a lot of time and effort into providing information and offering incentives on Shine Rewards Club, we won’t rest on our laurels.

”Queen Anne represents a huge capacity increase for us so every channel is important to ensure we fill that capacity, but agents are especially critical.

”We want to get as many as possible on board in the first month so they can understand the product and see how different it is to the other ships in our fleet.”

Queen Anne will be one of six ships offering visits during next year’s Clia Conference, which will give 200 agents the opportunity to take a tour.

The remaining 300 will be invited for “overnight experiences”, with more information to come at a later date.

Katie McAlister, Cunard president, said: “For more than 180 years, Cunard has constantly refined the definitive experience of luxury ocean travel and I am incredibly excited that we are now just six months away from beginning the next chapter of our remarkable story.

”I know that guests around the world are looking forward to sailing with our new Queen and we are counting down the days until we can welcome them aboard.”