The new store will be based at the firm’s new office location.
Other plans include in-resort representatives for excursions and transfers, the development of a dedicated online TV channel and online booking to become available throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Cruise Nation announced the plans at a ‘History in the Making’ event on Tuesday, attended by 160 guests including business partners, regional and national press and customers.
The event saw the announcement of additional plans for Cruise Nation. The operator now also offers excursions and transfers as part of its packages and has introduced a separate team of three staff who are dedicated to the organisation of these.
Several new partners have been brought onboard including Cruise & Maritime Voyages; Cruising Excursions and Do Something Different for shore excursions; and Holiday Taxis for transfers.
In December Cruise Nation will begin working with Wendy Wu Tours for on-the-ground support for cruise ships arriving into Asia.
The tours will be incorporated into Cruise Nation’s Smart Packages and will be available to guests travelling with Celebrity Cruises or on Royal Caribbean’s new ship Ovation of the Seas from January 2017.
Meanwhile, Cruise Nation has now set up its own homeworking division and is looking to hire 30 homeworking staff (both full and part time) to be part of this team.
The new division, who will be offered flexible hours, will work closely with Cruise Nation’s existing 50 call centre staff and will be encouraged to also generate sales in their own local areas.
Michelle Martin has been appointed as Cruise Nation’s head of sales in October and will be responsible for the leadership of this team.
She was previously head of the homeworking division at Hays Travel, where she managed 200 homeworkers.
Phil Evans, co-founder and managing director of Cruise Nation, said: “2016 has been an exciting year for us at Cruise Nation and we’ve expanded rapidly to meet the huge customer demand.
“We’d like to thank everyone who has been part of our success so far and are looking forward to welcoming more new team members, homeworkers and partners as we move into 2017.”
