A little bit of Tina Arena, an incredible three-course meal, a continuous flow of alcohol and whole lot of cruise winners, they were the elements that made up the 15th Annual Cruise Industry Awards.
Held over the weekend at The Star Event Centre in Sydney, some 500 industry members from Australia and New Zealand gathered for this year’s event, which recognises the cruise industry’s best of the best.
Some 19 winners across nine categories were awarded this year including Western Australia’s Bicton Travel which won the Gold Agency of the Year award for the fifth time.
In accepting the agency’s fifth top gong in six years, Bicton founder Carole Smethurst thanked the agency’s cruise line partners for their “fantastic support” as well as her team of 24 staff.
Meanwhile, Travelrite International took out the Silver Award while King William Travel won Bronze and Scenic’s Founder Glen Moroney was welcomed into the CLIA Hall of Fame for his pioneering work in the rapidly growing river cruise sector.
The sell-out gala also featured a show-stopping performance by one of Australia’s leading performers, Tina Arena.
Check out a snippet of her performance here (love the guys taking selfies with her in the background):
The amazing Tina Arena getting the party started tonight at the CLIA Australasia Awards. #15cruiseawards
Posted by KARRYON on Saturday, February 20, 2016
So here it is, this year’s top cruise sellers in Australia and New Zealand:
Cruise Agency of the Year – Australia
Gold: Bicton Travel, Perth WA
Silver: King William Travel SA
Bronze: Travelrite International VIC
Cruise Agency of the Year – New Zealand
Gold: House of Travel Orewa
Silver: United Travel Bethlehem
Bronze: Bon Voyage Cruises
Online Agency of the Year – Australia
Clean Cruising
Online Agency of the Year – New Zealand
Cruise Republic
Home Based/Mobile Agent of the Year – Australia
Tracey Flower, MTA – Mobile Travel Agent
Broker of the Year – New Zealand
Denise Fowler, The Travel Brokers
Cruise Consultant of the Year – Australia
Kara Lane, Ecruising
Cruise Consultant of the Year – New Zealand
Kylie Gutierrez, Cruiseabout Pukekohe
Rising Star Award – Australia
Emma Dunn, Ozcruising
Rising Star Award – New Zealand
Rosie Scates, Cruiseabout Takapuna
Agency Promotion of the Year – Australia
My Travel Expert Nowra, “Girls Day Out – 2015”
Agency Promotion of the Year – New Zealand
House of Travel “Grabacruise”, “Art Deco Weekend”
Network Promotion of the Year – Australasia
Phil Hoffmann Travel, “Cruise Expo”
Commended: Cruise Republic “CLIA Cruise Week Sale”
CLIA Hall of Fame
Aleisha Fittler accepted the award on behalf of Glenn.
Scenic Founder, Glenn Moroney