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UK Cruise Business Signs Major Deal With World Travel Holdings
June 25, 2010

The UK's fastest growing cruise retail business has today announced an exciting partnership with the world's largest distributor of cruise holidays.

Cruise118 directors Mal Barritt and James Cole have signed a major deal with America based World Travel Holdings, which will allow the business to push forward with its already aggressive growth strategy.

Mal Barritt explained: "This is an extremely important deal, both for Cruise118 and the UK's cruise industry. Under the deal we are announcing today, World Travel Holdings will acquire a stake in Cruise118 so that together we can grow the business to become one of the largest independent cruise retail companies in the UK.

"We have developed a strong relationship with Brad and Jeff Tolkin, Co-CEOs and majority owners of World Travel Holdings, and our business model sits very well alongside theirs. We both have organisations dedicated to providing exceptional service as standard and have outstanding teams ready to take on this new and exciting challenge."

James Cole added: "We're extremely proud of what we've achieved at Cruise118 in such a short time and this partnership marks a major step change in our company history. It really takes us to the next level and we are determined to ensure that joining forces with the world's largest distributor of cruise holidays helps us to fulfil our potential in the UK market."

Based in Wilmington, MA, USA, World Travel Holdings owns a variety of different brands including CruisesOnly, Cruises.com, Rooms.com, Vacation Outlet, CruiseOne, Cruises Inc. Villas of Distinction, and Island Hideaways. It also powers cruises for companies such as Priceline, American Airlines, Continental, Delta and US Airways.

Jeff Tolkin, Co-CEO of World Travel Holdings, said: "We are extremely excited about this latest partnership. Cruise118 shares our ethos of providing exceptional customer service as standard and we have been impressed by the team's professionalism and ability to grow their business at such an impressive rate. We are looking forward to working with them and to helping them significantly grow the company's cruise retail offering in the UK."

Cruise 118 was established in June 2008 by ex My Travel directors Mal Barritt and James Cole and since its launch the company has quickly established itself as the UK's fastest growing retail business. Last year the company signed a multi-million pound deal with travelsupermarket.com to provide a white label cruise website.

The directors of Cruise118.com have launched three niche brands, sixstarcruises.co.uk, sailfromuk.com and alaskaonly.com, in response to demand, and are currently pursing other third party partnerships in order to continue to grow the business in the coming years.

Source :- http://www.beattiegroup.com/