Inspire Group is to put more investment and focus in growing its cruise business, with Product Manager Chris Meddows given an expanded role to help the agency increase its share of the sector.
CEO Lisa Henning told the group’s 70 homeworkers attending its conference in Manchester last week that cruise would have a greater strategic focus going forward, with every member of its Independent Travel Associates (ITA) team being tasked with growing cruise to 10% of their overall business.
To support the plan, Inspire has made a ‘substantial investment’ in a new Cruise Resource Centre tool that gives homeworkers instant access to information on 92 cruise operators, including ship details, itineraries and live prices.
Chris’ role now includes driving Inspire’s cruise business and growing its dynamic packaging programme with supplier partners across every cruise sector.
He has already developed initiatives such as dedicated cruise months, focused activity weeks in partnership with leading cruise suppliers, training programmes, competitions and incentives.
Lisa said: “This conference is all about resilience and vision, and the cruise industry epitomises both. As a sector, cruise has enormous growth potential, and with the cruise lines delivering continual innovation and launching new ships all the time, it presents a golden opportunity for our homeworkers, as well as a real opportunity for cruise suppliers to engage more closely with us.
“The Cruise Resource Centre is designed to deepen agents’ knowledge of the cruise market, build their confidence in selling cruise, and ultimately drive further booking growth across the network. This, combined with the business’s increased ATOL licence, helped Inspire achieve record-breaking dynamic packaging sales during the first quarter of 2026, with a higher average booking value – resulting in greater earnings for our ITAs.”
