It has been a week dominated in the UK travel trade press by news on airports and new runways - but that doesn't mean that cruising is any less newsworthy.

Travel Weekly have led with a big interview with Azamara Club Cruises boss (and speaker at this year's Selling Cruise Conference) Larry Pimentel in which he once again reinstates that it is the current non-cruising guests that are key to the future of the industry - key he says because for Azamara they account for 22% of all guests.  Read the full interview here.

Meanwhile over on TTG Alex White Head of Sales for Princess Cruises reveals big plans for agents in 2014 with a massive WAVE period campaign - and plenty of ship visits.  Read here.

Over in the United States meanwhile talk is of massive expansion at Port Canaveral - set to be an even bigger cruise port in the future: read more here

It is in 2015 that the new ship from P&O Cruises sets sail - and this week P&O released a taster video of what the new ship will look like: watch the video here

That investment in new ships, and in refurbishment programmes is key to exceeding customer expectations, and here is news of some of the refurbishment elements of Fred Olsen's Boudicca: Read here

For cruise destinations although not strictly speaking a trade press piece - we loved this summary of cruising the Amazon from USA Today that you can read here.

Finally it's with great sadness that we have learnt of the death of industry veteran Gwyn Hughes.  Gwyn was a highly respected member of the cruise industry and made an enormous contribution in raising the profile of cruise holidays. He worked tirelessly to promote our sector of the travel industry and we are all saddened to lose such an admired colleague.  You can read more here.  Our thoughts are with his family.



Our next blog will be in January - so in the meantime we wish you a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!

The recent refurbishment of Crystal Serenity is featured on Seatrade Insider that details its $17 million refurb including a redesign at Navantia Shipyard with chic new Crystal Penthouses and dramatically transformed indoor/outdoor casual dining spaces, including the Trident Grill, Scoops ice cream bar, Tastes Bar, Lido Cafe and Tastes restaurant.  Read here

Plans for further refurbishments have also been announced by Thomson - with new private balconies being added to three ships: Read here

And this follows the news from Oceania Cruises of the refurb of all three of their ships: Read here

On Wednesday Carnival Cruise Line announced a tie-up with Dr Seus - bringing Green Eggs and Ham to their fleet: Read here

Meanwhile Norwegian Cruise Line have released their 2015 deployment - with three ships in Alaska and four in the Med: Read more here

Talking of far-away places, it is great to see continued investment in new ports - this time Abu Dhabi is planning on being a major cruise hub of the region: Read here

Back to the UK and the announcement came on Friday of the new boss for Azamara Club Cruises - Richard Twynam will take his place in the new year: Read here  And a new Director of Marketing and PR has been appointed for Celebrity Cruises too: Read here

And it was great to see CLIA UK & Ireland once again making the headlines with a new initiative unveiled last week to ensure that we meet our core strategic strategy of getting more people to cruise, more often.  Three new working groups will spearhead the campaign: Read here

Over on Travel Weekly in the United States is the story on the expansion of AmaWaterways into South East Asia - yet another sign of the growing investment in both new river cruise ships and in more exotic locations: Read here

Staying with river cruising and with Travel Weekly in the US, they produced an infographic to help US agents understand the opportunity to switch cruisers to river cruise (or indeed adventure cruise): Read here

Back in the UK and the big recruitment news is the appointment of Helen Caron as head of cruise at TUI UK - reporting to former cruise boss Fraser Ellacott: Read here from Travel Weekly.  Travel Weekly also picked up the story of the CLIA event being held in conjunction with Norwegian getaway - the new ship launching January by Norwegian Cruise Lines: Read here

It is a theme picked up by the Baltimore Explorer that also offers advice on right ship - right customer; as we prepare for WAVE season anything that breaks down barriers for first time cruisers has to be a good thing.  Read here.

Ahead of the new year - e-tid picked up the piece by Cruise Critic on how the cruising landscape may look in 2014 - short cruises and far away places will be all the rage according to their article that you can Read here

As the festive season falls upon us - great coverage of the tremendous charity activity by Cunard in the Southampton Echo this week: Read here

Meanwhile, Royal Caribbean goes all musical with Mamma Mia onboard Quantum of the Seas: Read here and in TTG the 'Royal Family is also unveiled: Read here