We work with over 15,300 partners worldwide. These comprise:
• 12,860 travel agencies in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries
• 250 suppliers for the hotel, wellness and tour services
• 165 suppliers for food and beverages
• 1,700 suppliers for new builds and shipyards and 229 port and tour operators.
Relationships with our partners are based on mutual trust. We wish to work exclusively with suppliers who meet our high standards in terms of environmental protection, quality, job security and social responsibility. In order to ensure this, we evaluate our supplier relationships on the basis of precisely defined criteria such as supplier reliability, flexibility, product quality and status as a strategic partner, main supplier or temporary supplier.
We are convinced that economic success must not come at the expense of people and the environment. We expect the same of our suppliers. That is why we continually ask our partners about the extent to which they have implemented their own guidelines and management systems in terms of quality, the environment, hygiene, food safety, occupational health and safety, health protection, and social responsibility. Our supplier questionnaire is based in part on key International Labor Organization (ILO) labor standards. Questions focus, for example, on issues relating to child labor, forced labor, discrimination, payment and working conditions and freedom of association. In terms of environmental protection, we go a step further. In addition to questions on the use of recyclable and pure packaging materials, we also conduct regular on-site quality checks. This allows us to provide our suppliers with critical feedback and show them potential ways of further improving their individual performance. At these visits, we also make the most of the opportunity to nurture our relationships with suppliers through direct contact, and if necessary, we offer support. All of this serves to deepen the mutual trust between ourselves and our partners.
Dance, song, acrobatics: the entertainment program on board AIDA cruise ships is as diverse as it is unique. Entertainment, edutainment, animation and events are all handled by AIDA Entertainment GmbH, formerly SeeLive Tivoli Entertainment & Consulting GmbH. This joint venture was founded in 2001 by AIDA Cruises and Schmidt’s Tivoli, and acquired by AIDA in 2011.
Over 12,860 travel agencies in Europe help our passengers to choose their dream vacation. To enable our agency partners to provide future guests with the best advice for planning their trip, we launched the AIDA PartnerShip program in 2008 – and ensured its targeted further development in 2011. Within the framework of this program, our travel agency partners not only benefit from attractive commissions, preferential service and first hand product knowledge, we also make promotional material and incentives available, for example, for campaigns and advertisements.
What’s more, we also offer our partners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland the exclusive opportunity of getting to know our newest ship. The more successful a travel agency is in selling AIDA cruises, the more services it can benefit from. In addition to chain and outside-sales training for office managers and travel agents, we also offer seminar trips and ship tours. In 2011, around 1,800 travel industry professionals took part in the two-day product launch of AIDAsol alone. Expert forums and our annual travel agent questionnaire round out what’s on offer. We work closely together with our agency partners to constantly improve our products in a targeted manner. Once again, their input and suggestions in 2011 provided important stimulus for our future product portfolio.
Our support network has been well received within the industry. In 2011, the Österreichische Reisebüroverband (ÖRV, Austrian Association of Travel Agencies) and the Austrian tourism magazine, “traveller”, awarded us the “Athene Award 2011” for outstanding training and professional development programs in the tourism industry.
