Cruise holidays - beating the credit crunch

Socruise.com, the online travel agency, community and news source for cruise lovers is gearing up for National Cruise Week, September 20-27 2009. Having recently gained more than 1000 new members, socruise.com is reaping the benefits of the increased interest in cruise holidays.

Booking holidays online has become commonplace, but in 2008, 83% of the 1.5 million Britons who took a cruise still booked through a travel agent, perhaps because a cruise is a higher-risk enterprise for inexperienced cruise takers: if you make the wrong choice, you're literally a captive market, whereas if you choose the wrong hotel or resort for a land-based holiday, you can simply travel further to get away from your mistake.

However, cruises offer great advantages when money is tight: they allow the holidaymaker to visit lots of different places without having to pack and unpack or book multiple destinations, they offer largely ‘all-in’ costings, so it’s easier to budget for your break and they provide top quality entertainment so you don't have to pay extra for a great show or some live music.

Clever cruise travellers are looking for agents that combine the ease and deals of online booking with the knowledge and expertise of the travel agent, and those two aspects come together in socruise.com, where expert agency staff and a passenger-led community come together to provide the best information and the best deals.

Ten new cruise ships will be launched this year, with another 29 being launched between 2010 and 2012, and socruise.com will offer news, reviews, commentary and debate about the cruise holiday world, as well as bringing some of the best prices to the online booker.

For more information, reviews, and cruise bookings, visit socruise.com.