Last week Travel Market Report launched a three-part series exploring the issue of direct marketing by cruise lines to agency clients.

While all agents Travel Market Report spoke with criticized suppliers for the ways in which they direct market, some agents are finding ways to redirect cruise direct marketing messages to their own benefit.

Almost without fail cruise sellers agreed that cruise lines should, at the very least, be able to link clients who book the onboard early booking specials with their originating agent.

Dwain Wall, vice president and general manager of CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., said he believes most cruise lines have this information in their databases, though he said he doesn’t know whether its right up front or buried someplace in the record. “To me it should be front and center,” he told Travel Market Report. “They should respect that.”

“If I book that client on their ship, they [the cruise line] should automatically credit the travel agent or ask the client ‘do you want to give this to your travel agent,’” Helen Vacca, owner/manager of New Hampshire-based Vacation Bound added.

But, she said, very few of the onboard reservations agents do this. Most of her clients, however, assume the booking has been given to her and return home from their cruise asking her to help with the planning of their next cruise.

As for direct mail pieces, agents told Travel Market Report that personalized direct mail is ideal. And some agents have access to such pieces through partnerships between their consortia or franchise company and the cruise lines.

It’s rarely free, “but it’s a huge difference compared with if we had that piece printed up ourselves,” Vacca said.

Even better, a few of the luxury lines have begun sending direct mails that include the name of the agency of record, Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso, said.

“That’s a very smart strategy, because what you’re actually doing is supporting and honoring the strength of the relationship of that particular advisor with that particular client.”

But Wall pointed out to TMR that this is easier for the luxury lines to do.

“They have fewer customers to deal with and quite frankly they have fewer resources to take direct bookings. They’re not set up to take large numbers of calls and therefore they rely heavily on travel agents,” he said.

Generic More Common

At the current moment in time few lines offer this type of personalized direct marketing with the vast majority sticking with the generic “… or call your travel agent” call to action.

While most agents accept that the generic call to action isn’t going anywhere, all agree that the “Call Your Travel Agent” text should be as prominent, or even more prominent, than the cruise lines’ direct contact information.

“Most of the supplier direct mailings say contact your travel agent. That is good,” Colleen Gillette, owner of New Paltz Travel, said. “What is bad is the font size. The supplier should print the generic 'contact your travel agent' in the same font and font size as the supplier name and information.”

Wall agreed. “More and more you see bold letters ‘book now, call us or go to our Web site’ and in small letters ‘or call your travel agent.’ I would like to see that reversed… I would like to see ‘call your travel professional’ come first.”

“And the rates should not be promoted as a cruise line only special,” Nancy F. Yoffe, ECC, of A South Carolina Cruise Planners added, speaking of the promotional rates advertised in the direct marketing pieces.

Another issue, said Cindy Clifford of Gotta Go Cruises, is that in direct e-mails, a "find a travel agent" option returns a list of competitive agencies.

What Can Agents Do

Some agents are finding ways to take advantage of the impersonal marketing their clients receive – making proverbial lemonade out of lemons.

The key is to be proactive.

For onboard bookings Vacca said she now tells all her clients ahead of time to make sure they mention her as the agent of record.

“We try to make every client aware that they will receive direct marketing from the supplier after they have gone on their trip and that the clients can book those offers with us and still get the savings,” Donna Johnson, president of Red Bird Travel Plus, added.

“It definitely puts the burden on me and I tell every one of my clients that once they have sailed, they will receive promotional material and phone calls from the cruise lines,” Yoffe told TMR. “I tell them the cruise lines will not offer anything I cannot get, and to call me directly.

While Johnson admits it is one more thing to have to deal with, it also makes sense.

“We are already burdened to educate our clients so that they will be on the correct cruise for them. And we have to hold their hands so that they can print boarding passes or book shore excursions if they are computer illiterate. But it is probably OUR job to make sure our clients are educated so they will stay loyal to us.”

The agents TMR spoke with are far from alone in their proactiveness. According to a recent Travel Market Report poll in which we asked our readers "Do you always let clients know you can book any direct offers they receive?" 73% of respondents said yes.

Aside from being proactive, agents tell us that if they truly want the cruise lines to change their policy, they’ll need to make the cruise lines, and tour operators, that do the most direct marketing hurt where it counts – in bookings.

Vacca told TMR of one tour operator with whom she’d had such bad experiences of them marketing directly to her clients that eventually she simply stopped booking their product.

“I told them ‘I do not want you to direct market my clients. And if you do, I’m just not going to book with you.’ And I haven’t... I won’t book with them now because of it,” Vacca said, adding the travel agency community needs to do the same thing on a large scale.

“If we keep doing the same things expecting different results, what does that say about us an industry?” added Red Bird Travel Plus’ Johnson. She told TMR she will book away from suppliers if they do not at least feature a “call your travel agent” call to action in their direct marketing.

“It’s too bad that certain lines feel they have to compete with us, as we are working hard to sell their product, but they continue to put road blocks in front of us,” Yoffe said. “I certainly do try to push the more travel agent friendly lines.”

Next week: Cruise lines respond.