Partner Article

Cruising into new markets

A fledgling cruise comparison website has won £90,000 in funding to help it achieve a coveted place in the UK’s top 25 online travel sites.

CruiseCompare.co.uk is a unique price comparison site that helps holidaymakers search the entire cruise holiday market in seconds. It features up to 10,000 cruise deals from all of the leading operators together with pictures, video and impartial customer reviews of the holidays on offer.

Founded by Tom Fotheringham, former online marketing manager of North Shields-based DFDS Seaways, CruiseCompare has secured an investment of more than £90,000 from the Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept Fund – which is managed by Northstar Ventures and backed by One North East, the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.

“We are hoping to replicate the success of price comparison websites which have dramatically changed the way UK consumers select things like gas and electricity, motor insurance and mobile phone providers,” Tom said.

“For many people, a cruise is their once in a lifetime dream holiday. Others take half a dozen a year. In 2010, more than one in 10 inclusive package holidays incorporated a cruise, compared with just one in 30 back in 1998. But with so many cruise lines offering a huge range of cruises from £49 to £49,000 it can sometimes be a little bewildering.

“CruiseCompare.co.uk is the only website of its kind and lets users search and compare the entire cruise holiday market in seconds. We are hopeful that this investment by Northstar will help us to develop the concept even further and become a top 25 UK travel site.

North East-based CruiseCompare is already supplying information on cruise deals to a number of national newspapers, and has been featured in numerous travel website reviews. Its Facebook page is proving hugely popular too, having attracted an impressive 40,000 followers in the first four weeks.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .