Cruising to a new beginning

What looks like a launch of a brand new Canadian magazine for the dedicated luxury traveller is really a clever rebranding and rebirth. Cruise and Travel Lifestyles is a renovated and repositioned successor to Canadian-owned Cruise Lifestyles. And although the content of the new magazine will cover luxury vacations ashore, about 75% of its pages will still be be cruise-related. The new owner promises it will be full of tips, insider information, ship profiles and resort reviews as well as feature interviews with key players in the industry.

The magazine's publisher, Vanessa Lee, was co-founder and former managing director of Encore Cruises and purchased the Canadian publication Cruise Lifestyles from CTM partners Gerry Kinasz and Michael Butler in December and became publisher and CEO. Lee has spent the last 15 years as a high-profile advocate for cruises (and has some 75 cruises logged in her own passport.) She said in a release:

"We hear again and again that Canada is ready for such a publication. We have superb international content, with a Canadian twist."

Subscriptions are free through blue-chip travel agencies across the country. Interested readers can also subscribe online at www.cruiselifestyles.com. There will be two issues in 2007: at the end of March and in September, with quarterly publication planned for 2008. A page in the new magazine costs $5,000 U.S.

(A couple of interesting wrinkles: part of its business model is that national travel advertisers are asked not to put their toll free telephone numbers in their ads, in deference to the travel agencies that are a key part of the distribution strategy. All advertisers have access to a list of the partner agencies in order to facilitate literature and brochure distribution, naturally with the help of Cruise and Travel Lifestyles.)