VIVA Cruises triumphs at Grand Travel Awards Norway, Securing Best River Cruise Accolade

News   •   January 12th, 2024

VIVA Cruises, a distinguished cruise-company renowned for its premium river cruises,  celebrated victory at the Grand Travel Award in Norway. The Norwegian Travel Industry cast votes for VIVA Cruises to be awarded the esteemed title of Best River Cruise, marking a momentous achievement for the company and cementing its presence in the Norwegian market.

The Grand Travel Award ceremony, hosted by Travel News Norway,  witnessed VIVA Cruises being honoured for its commitment to delivering unparalleled cruising experiences. This win represents the first time VIVA Cruises has been recognized at the Grand Travel Award Norway, underscoring the company’s dedication to excellence in the cruise industry.

In a statement regarding the historic win at the Grand Travel Award in Norway, VIVA Cruises’ Chief Operating Officer, Andrea Kruse, expressed her enthusiasm and gratitude. She remarked, “We are truly honored to receive the Best River Cruise accolade from the Norwegian Travel Industry at the Grand Travel Award. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire VIVA Cruises team, who consistently strive to deliver exceptional experiences for our passengers.”

Norwegian travelers have been increasing on VIVA Cruises (as opposed to the general trend), and Scandinavians already make up 20% of VIVA Cruises’ guests.

During the event, CEO Andrea Kruse participated in a leadership seminar, engaging in discussions with other prominent figures in the cruise industry. The seminar focused on the future of the cruise industry, exploring the challenges and opportunities ahead. This participation emphasizes VIVA Cruises’ commitment to staying at the forefront of industry trends and contributing to the ongoing dialogue about the future of cruising.

VIVA Cruises is renowned for its emphasis on premium services and relaxation, providing passengers with premium experiences on river cruises. The cruise line offers diverse itineraries, including scenic river cruises along European waterways such as the Rhine, Danube, and Main rivers. All VIVA Cruises itineraries include VIVA Cruises’ signature VIVA All-Inclusive product, which includes snacks, a full board, high-quality alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, a minibar, beauty products from the luxury cosmetic brand Rituals, Wi-Fi and all tips and gratuities.All departures are bi-lingual – in English and German.

As VIVA Cruises celebrates this momentous win, the company remains dedicated to delivering exceptional travel experiences and looks forward to continuing its legacy of excellence in the cruise industry. 

For more information about VIVA Cruises, please visit: www.viva-cruises.com

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Notes to Editors:

About VIVA Cruises

VIVA Cruises invites you to experience the very best of Europe the way it was meant to be discovered: with good company, unique perspectives and award-winning service and amenities. Knowing that not all travellers are the same, VIVA Cruises has made it their mission to give customers greater ease, flexibility and choice. With decades of experience cruising to Europe’s most popular destinations, they proudly offer a cruise experience like no other, designed to enrich, inspire and renew. Guests will delve into the heart of timeless towns and villages and the world’s most thriving capitals following all the greatest rivers (Danube, Elbe, Moselle, Rhine, Rhône, Seine and the Main-Danube Canal). 

For further media information, please contact:

Lotte Laugesen at PR agency United Spirit Nordic

Tel: +45 3150 02 53  or email: lotte@unitedspiritnordic.com

Newsletters and their hidden potential

November 2023

Lotte – PR and Communications Manager, joined a newsletter training course this month to get new information to optimize newsletters we send to our travel agents and media.

Opinions are divided on the newsletter genre, but when it’s done right, it has huge potential. 

The course was a real eye-opener on how this often routine category of a tool can be used far more effectively when you know the basic rules of thumb.

Two experts in the field, Rasmus Nordstrøm, independent content partner and copywriter, and Mette Hertzmann, partner and owner of Symbiotisk, each shared their valuable insights during the course.

Lotte came home with renewed knowledge and inspiration, some of the most important things in her opinion which we will share with our customers:

Know your target audience and focus on their needs when writing your newsletter objectives.

Just because you’re writing professionally doesn’t mean you have to be boring – we’re people with humor at work too, and a text is easier to read when it’s a bit playful.

The text is most important – it’s the heart of the newsletter – but also make the design eye-pleasing and easy to read.

CTAs are important, but less is more in the newsletter genre. One of the experts from the course even believes that the equation should be 1 newsletter = 1 CTA. 

Make it personal – but respect your audience’s boundaries. Too much click-bait in the title makes the reader feel cheated, and no one likes that. 

Create a strategy with your newsletter and always check back to see if you’re fulfilling your intent. 

Not all of these are easy to achieve in an organization where you have a lot of customers or products and need CTAs for all – but the intent, that it feels genuinely interesting and relevant to the reader, needs to be there. 

Preferably, the introduction describes a problem and how you can approach a solution to it. You can do this already in the title, by using the structure ‘pain – agitation – solution’.

Pain-  Point out the problem, Agitation – explain why the problem is so terrible and solution – explain that by reading the newsletter there might be a solution to find.

Simple but effective. 

And as a bonus, you already know a lot more about the reader than you do when writing an article or advert copy. 

In the travel sector, we write newsletters both for the travel agents and for travel media and journalists. Thus, our aim is not necessarily to sell anything directly, but rather to sell the idea of a destination or a product as the perfect escape to dull Scandinavian weather, for example. Thus, the Pain- Agitation- Solution model actually works well, also in B2B newsletters.

And when you realize the potential power of the newsletter, it’s well worth putting the extra effort into writing it.

Newsletter recipients have signed up to receive the newsletter themselves, so the interest is already there. You don’t have to captivate the reader in the same way as in other genres. This is exactly what makes the genre such a potentially great communication tool.

Lotte immediately started this month’s newsletter with renewed energy and is already looking forward to creating more newsletters for our clients! 

The new tools in her toolbox need to be put to the test.

Christine had the pleasure of escorting a group of journalists to beautiful Maldives, where they got to experience the gastronomy, underwater adventures, learn about sustainability, and experience the luxury on some of the exclusive resorts in the Maldives.

During the trip they visited three different islands and three different resorts, transported by the unique experience of a seaplane to all of the resorts.

The first resorts they stayed at was Sun Siyam Iru Veli, a 40-minute seaplane ride from Male airport. This is a premium all-inclusive resort with only 125 suites. The journalists participated in a Maldivian food cooking class, had private breakfast on a sandbank and of course tried snorkeling on the house reef.

It is an island – and resort – where the barefoot lifestyle is embedded, and you eat dinner with your feet in the sand.