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Transparency and Ethics Policy

Introduction

We’re proud of being an independent cruise website. It is something that was our primary motive when we setup BeyondCruise back in 2012 and something that we still strongly believe in, right up to this day.

Most of the time the news, features and trips we cover are financed by us – we do this from the advertising on the site. However, there are instances when cruise ports, lines or tourist attractions ask us to cover something that is directly related to our audience.

Why we are doing this

As the Internet matures people are becoming used to adverts and either blocking them (please don’t, it is a small price to pay for our content!) or avoiding them. Companies, from small businesses to large brands are now turning to social networks and websites to help promote their services. Sometimes the message they wish to convey can’t always be done via a single advert.

We feel that if you read content online you should be told if the people who wrote it were in some way rewarded for the content they have written because not everyone is honest!

What this means

Sometimes we are approached by companies to cover their product or service in return for some sort of reward. Generally, if the product fits completely with our audience – we’ll cover it. If it doesn’t – we won’t! (so you won’t see us trying to flog bags repeatedly as an example). We have and will continue to turn down brands that we feel our audience would not like or would be too niche.

For the companies that we do work with, sometimes it isn’t always about the reward, but the access we can have instead. A typical example we can use is a cruise ship spa. Generally, you aren’t allowed to photo or film in there (for privacy reasons obviously!) and by working with the cruise line, we can get access to film the area out of hours for you – so you get to see what you’d see as a cruiser.

However, we have a strict policy that all businesses and brands must agree to before we do any work for them. That is, we have full editorial control. That means we publish what we want and they can’t change or directly influence it. All of our coverage is always based on being an actual cruiser.

How we’ll inform you

We’ll inform you on each of our channels of any sponsorship / compensation we’ve received:

  • Our website – at the bottom of the posts you will find a short, highlighted paragraph linking to this article and the details of any sponsorship involvement.
  • On Instagram – we’ll use the hashtag #ad or #sponsored in the post.
  • On Twitter – we’ll use the hashtag #ad or #sponsored in the Tweet.
  • On Facebook – we’ll use the hashtag #ad or #sponsored in the post (or it may say Paid)
  • On YouTube – we’ll use the hashtag #ad or #sponsored in the description.

We hope that by publishing our Transparency and Ethics Policy that you, our readers, continue to trust us and enjoy our content just as much as before – if you have any questions or comments, then contact us!

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