New Resource for Incentive Cruise Planning!
What is Seasite.com?
Making a bold foray into cyberspace that will revolutionize the cruise meetings industry, global cruise event specialist, Landry & Kling, announces the worldwide debut of Seasite.com, the first online cruise platform and web portal dedicated solely to serving the cruise meetings market. Driven by sophisticated technology, super rich content and robust search capabilities for meetings-at-sea, Seasite puts incentive and meeting management companies in total “cruise” control. The single, most comprehensive source for savvy, do-it-yourself planners and novices alike, Seasite delivers all the tools, ideas and resources needed to launch a successful incentive cruise event or meeting-at-sea. And at the same time, mindful of the relationship-focused meetings industry’s expectations of high touch service, planners looking for input and assistance can call upon Seasite’s Cruise Advisors, who are trained by Landry & Kling, to provide a human touch. There is no cost or membership fee to use Seasite.com.
Why Create Seasite.com?
Over the last 25 years, businesses and professional groups have discovered the advantages of the cruise experience. Once reserved just for the elite, it is now an everyman’s getaway, just like going to a hotel, but with the added bonus of cost savings from 25-40% off land based venues. Influenced by the Internet, the way business is sourced and transacted has changed dramatically. While cruising, as a venue for meeting and incentives has grown significantly, it remains the only sector in the travel industry without a dedicated web portal to facilitate the sourcing process, making it tedious and labor intensive. As cruising for many planners remains uncharted territory, Seasite demystifies the entire process by providing easy access, depth of knowledge and the tools and resources needed to successfully navigate the waters – all in one place. As the cruise industry keeps growing, it’s harder to keep track of all the ships and details that are essential to planning a well-run cruise event. For the first time, planners can find group-related data online and compare all ships, all cruise brands, all on one site, eliminating the need to phone multiple cruise lines or search numerous Web sites in vain.
Rich Content & Sophisticated Search
Seasite’s powerful search engine allow planners to drill down and refine searches by cruise line, ship rating, size, capacity of largest function room, cruise style (floating resort, boutique ship, sail ship, river boat), by port or day of departure, destination, cruise length and much more. Seasite provides impartial access any day, any time, to 35 cruise brands (over 250 ships), and its meeting-friendly search criteria allows one to search for charters of a specific size, as well as three additional specialty searches. A simple click compares ship choices, along with maps, itineraries, ship profiles and essential meeting planning data. The “Planners Guides” offer exclusive, comprehensive data harvested just for Seasite. Consisting of information never before published– not even on cruise line Web sites – users will find an inventory of guest rooms by category, function room capacities, outdoor function areas, group dining information, photo gallery, meeting space grids, AV equipment, communications technology and more.
High Tech Innovation/High Touch Service
Seasite’s sophisticated technology opens up the untapped world of cruising for planners, connecting connects cruise lines and meeting professionals like never before. The online “powerhouse” allows the meeting planner community to take control, so cruise sourcing can now be as easy and efficient as planning hotel events. Combining high-tech innovation with high-touch service, Seasite offers a winning formula for the relationship-focused meetings industry because our experienced Cruise Advisors provide the human touch.
Exclusively on Seasite
Among a depth of content not found elsewhere, users will find the Great Ideas! section to be the “go to” place, with its recommended “Gems,” (rare and hard to find, short cruise opportunities) Seasite’s “Top 10” list features best ships and itineraries for groups, and “Quick Picks” serves up cruise ideas based on group size. Other value-added services include Cruise Line “Mini-Sites,” a Supplier directory, Destination information, a blog for planners to share their onboard experiences with cruise meetings and rate ship performances and experienced planning support from Cruise Advisor who are trained by Landry & Kling.
Education & Resources
Seasite’s Knowledge Center is a repository of useful tools and advice designed for all levels of expertise, such as operational checklists and timelines, comparison of cruise verses hotel pricing, how to overcome obstacles and myths about business at sea, distance between airports and seaports, sample day-by-day agendas, cruise contract terminology, advantages and challenges of full ship charters, a cruise event feasibility quiz, case studies, speaker logistics, global holidays and much more.
The First Group Cruise RFP Online
High-tech software turns users into knowledgeable planners and educated cruise buyers with 24/7 answers, ship-sourcing tools and the first group cruise RFP online, all supported by Seasite’s Cruise Advisors, who are trained by Landry & Kling. One single RFP is sent to multiple cruise lines, generating electronic bottom-line quotes for a quick and accurate “apples to apples” comparison.
Advancing the Cruise Industry
For cruise lines and other suppliers, Seasite significantly expands market reach to corporate and event planners way beyond traditional methods. Through this unprecedented global distribution channel, Seasite.com finally puts cruise venues on par with hotels so as to compete more efficiently for the same group business.
Founding Cruise Line Partners
Recognizing the need for a single source to showcase essential group and meeting related data, much of which is not available on individual cruise Web sites, nine cruise lines have demonstrated their commitment to making planners’ lives easier by becoming Seasite’s Founding Marketing Partners. They are Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Regent, Silversea, Celebrity, NCL, MSC, SeaDream and Sea Cloud. They recognize the need for a new distribution channel for cruises dedicated to increasing corporate/ incentive/association and other group business, and view Seasite as an innovative productivity tool that will expand the global cruise industry.
About Landry & Kling
Landry & Kling are credited with being the first distribution channel between the cruise industry and corporate America. Visionaries who led the way in seagoing corporate meetings and incentives, founders Joyce Landry (Landry & Kling CEO) and Josephine Kling (Seasite CEO) ignited the corporate market for cruises by spearheading the meetings-at-sea concept back in 1982. With their exclusive focus on events and meetings-at-sea, they have played a crucial role in advancing the cruise ship as a viable meeting venue and creating a whole new focus for the industry. Landry & Kling’s trailblazing spirit has been a recurring theme, from their early days when at the Seatrade Conference they dangled a bunch of carrots from the podium, challenging cruise lines to ‘match hotels in rolling out the red carpet for corporate groups,’ to being the dominate force in the ‘floating hotel’ phenomenon. Now with Seasite, they have responded to the changing times by creating an online “powerhouse” that will enable meeting planners to take control and become savvy cruise buyers, which will forever change the way meeting planners and ultimately consumers source and plan meetings at sea.
In April 2009, Landry & Kling co-founders Jo Kling and Joyce Landry were inducted into the CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) Hall of Fame, recognizing their significant contributions and innovations in the cruise industry. The company, which is based in Miami, the Cruise Capital of the World, is certified as a diversity supplier by WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council) and was been named among the Top Small Businesses in the United States by DiversityBusiness.com.
Company Information:
Seasite.com (A Landry & Kling Company)
1390 South Dixie Highway
Suite 1207
Miami, FL 33146
(888) 713-1371
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