WASHINGTON — The annual ‘Plan a Cruise Month’ campaign, taking place during the month of October, is designed to generate widespread awareness of cruise travel. CLIA is providing agents with  tips, tools and techniques that will allow them to engage with clients and help them plan the perfect cruise.

“Plan a Cruise Month is the perfect opportunity to connect travelers with a cruise vacation experience, and travel agents are the ambassadors for this exciting campaign,” said Lorri Christou, senior vice president of strategic marketing and communications, CLIA. “When developing this program, our Travel Agent Members were top of mind. Travel agents are vital to the continual success of the cruise industry and our direct link to prospective cruisers. We want our entire travel agent community engaged with Plan a Cruise Month and have created tools to make it as easy as possible.”

A complete toolkit is available to CLIA Travel Agency and Agent Members at cruising.org/PACMToolkit. It includes branded merchandise order information, a customizable press release that can be sent to local media, customizable social media posts, an email template to send to clients and prospects, graphics to promote the campaign, and details about deals and promotions from CLIA Cruise Line Members.

Beginning on Sept. 27, travel agents can access the Plan a Cruise Month Travel Agent deals and promotions by logging in to MyCLIA at cruising.org/login.

New this year, CLIA is rewarding agents who customize and leverage the campaign in creative ways on social media. Throughout the month, CLIA will reward agents on social media with prizes and acknowledgements.

Agents can participate in the Travel Agent Plan a Cruise Month Twitter Event on Sept. 28 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EDT, using the hashtag #CruiseMonth. The Twitter event offers agents the chance to tweet along with CLIA and win prizes like inaugural cruises and gift cards.

For more information go to cruising.org/cruise-vacationer/plan-a-cruise-month.