Cruises.co.uk bought for record £560,000 by cruise.co.uk

Cruise website, cruise.co.uk, has splashed out a record £560,000 to buy the domain name, cruises.co.uk, in a bid to dominate the one of the fastest growing sectors of the travel industry.

The £560,000 paid to previous owner, German travel company German travel company Nees Reisen, is the most money ever paid for a .co.uk domain name. The previous record was the £150,000 paid last year for recycle.co.uk.

"The cruise market is one of the fastest and most consistently growing sectors in the travel industry – a trend predicted to continue – and our website, www.cruise.co.uk, is the market leader," said Seamus Conlon, the Managing Director of Cruise.co.uk (pictured above).

"This year we are launching a number of initiatives to cement that position and to increase user-generated content. ‘Cruises’ is consistently ranked first on Google, with ‘cruise’ just behind. We wanted the top positions so that when internet users are searching for cruise deals, reviews or news we are the first port of call."

First port of call indeed.

Seamus Conlon, who is a former managing director of travel agency Airtours, bought cruise.co.uk last year from Carnival along with partner Andrew Gardner, who originally founded the site.

£560,000 may seem like a huge sum to pay for a domain name, but it's likely to prove a shrewd investment. 1.35 million Brits took a cruise last year, according to the Passenger Shipping Association, and that number is forecast to almost double by 2012.

7th February 2008

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