P&O Cruises Overwhelmed by Enquiries

Date: 10 Oct 2007

P&O Cruises today took its biggest volume of telephone calls this year from passengers enquiring about booking on cruises, including Australia’s first superliner, Pacific Dawn.

The call centre took almost 3000 calls by early afternoon from passengers enquiring about cruising in the South Pacific. This is 30 per cent more calls than on an average day.

Chief Executive Officer Ann Sherry said the company believed the number of calls had skyrocketed due to increased marketing surrounding the imminent arrival of Australia’s first superliner, Pacific Dawn, which departs on its maiden cruise from Sydney on Friday, November 9.

Olympic gold medallist Catherine Freeman will name Pacific Dawn, in a spectacular evening event at Sydney’s Circular Quay on Thursday, November 8, which will feature a giant light show.

Ms Sherry today apologised to passengers who may have experienced delays in speaking with the Call Centre to book their latest cruise.

“We are very excited about the arrival of Pacific Dawn and passengers’ interest in the superliner is helping push enquiries through the roof,” Ms Sherry said.

“I apologise for any inconvenience passengers may have experienced but I’m also delighted that so many Australians want to cruise for their holidays.

“There is clearly a lot of interest from our passengers in sailing both on the superliner Pacific Dawn, as well as P&O Cruises’ Pacific Sun.”

Pacific Sun is currently sailing from Sydney but will make Brisbane her new homeport from November 17 this year.

Cruising is the fastest growing sector of the Australian travel industry, with the number of Australians choosing a cruise holiday rising by 18 per cent last year, according to statistics from the International Cruise Council Australasia.

More than 100,000 Australians will travel on P&O Cruises’ ships this year alone.