Land and Sea: Execs Say Agents Needed More than Ever
by Daniel McCarthy /Cruise and land executives told travel agents they need them more than ever given the changing travel landscape that offers more specialized and unique products.
The executives spoke on at the recent sold-out Travel MarketPlace conference in Toronto. Each came from a different segment of cruising or touring—river cruises, adventure tours and large-ship cruising—but all found commonality on issues like the significance of agents, the targeting—or non-targeting—of specific demographics for their segments, and different selling points in today’s environment.
Importance of agents
“Most of our business comes from agents; about 70% of our business across the globe is from agents,” said Sean Russo, global purpose specialist, Ontario, for G Adventures.
The company’s unique experiences are sold by “storytelling . . . painting pictures to explain the ins and outs of what [our] itineraries and experiences are all about,” he said, adding that agents are crucial to selling this kind of tour.
Uniworld Boutique River Cruises allocates 100% of its marketing budget to the trade—not to consumer marketing—and it has a specialist program and website dedicated to agents, said Michelle Palma, national accounts, Canada, for the company.
“Our clients are looking for expertise,” Parma said, “[They] want to come in and sit down with someone who knows something about river cruising.”
Kim Clarke, director of sales for the Globus Family of Brands, said the company’s Avalon Waterways river cruises nets 98% of its business from agents. Avalon has a team of eight BDMs across Canada along with inside sales people and a marketing call center—all dedicated to assisting agents.
Avalon also features links on its consumer website on how to reach agents who have graduated from its specialist course.
Besides business development managers, a sales force and agent commission programs, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Partners First, a program established in 2011, steers cruisers to book through agents, according to Dana Gain, NCL’s national director of sales, Canada.
“I just want to say we are all about the trade. We want to support you, we are here to support agents,” said Gain.
Cruises and clients
While each of the experts said they offer consumers unique products, they agreed there isn’t necessarily a specific demographic they target.
And that’s something agents can take advantage of, they said.
“We see all agents that want flexibility [come aboard],” said Gain. “Clients aren’t just younger and older . . .you’d be surprised at how many millennials are sailing or how many seniors on going on contemporary cruises.”
G Adventures, even though it’s an adventure brand, has experienced a similar trend, said Russo,
“We’ve seen more and more variety of ages come on our excursions,” he said. “I’ve been hiking in northern Thailand with 80-year-olds who blew me out of the water.”
Both Gain and Russo agreed that the key issue for agents is to ask q clients qualifying questions that will result in the best results for client and agent.
“Figure out more about what they need and then the repeat business and loyalty comes,” Russo said.
Selling
In a cruise environment loaded with options, it’s also important to notice that different cruises have different selling points.
“I think talking about the experience is key as opposed to the hardware; it’s not the time to talk about passengers and ports but rather what are the opportunities on and off board to do these things,” said Gain.
While Norwegian advises agents to emphasize large-ship cruise benefits for their clients, Uniworld believes agents need to take a different approach selling its river cruises.
“River cruising is a tougher sale because of the higher ticket price,” said Parma. “A lot of it is included up front and [the cost] looks like a bigger cruise.
“One of the selling techniques we need to use is to highlight what’s included in the river cruises,” she added. “One of the great things is that you actually visit the arteries of the country, that you have the opportunity to walk on and off the ship freely and the much more intimate environment.”