When George Gehl hears ‘meeting’, he thinks ‘cruising’.

“Almost any program lends itself to a meeting at sea,” said the owner of Contacts Unlimited of West Palm Beach, FL, who has been marketing cruises for more than 30 years.  “If they look at Vegas, I think casinos on a ship. If they think Scottsdale, I think of golf in multiple ports. If they think hurricanes, I think that the ships are the only programs that don't get cancelled because they move to avoid hurricanes.”

“If you need an incentive that captures the imagination, [a cruise] is the carrot you can dangle for a year as a motivating reward — it’s exciting and it’s different,” said Josephine Kling, the CEO of SeaSite, LLC and co-founder of the cruising consultant firm of Landry and Kling. “Only 19% of adults in America who go on a vacation have been on a cruise. So when you’re offering someone a trip they haven’t taken, it’s of interest… a memorable life experience. Often, more participants make their sales quotas than the company originally anticipated and they have to book additional cabins,” said Kling.

Groups account for about 25% of all passengers on CLIA (Cruise Line International Association) brands, said Bob Sharak, CLIA’s executive vice president of Marketing and Distribution. “While the percentages vary by member line brand, of this group business, approximately 4% is attributable to corporate meeting and incentive travel which represents a terrific opportunity for growth,” he said.

“Dedicated meeting space, use of public rooms, the inclusive meal, lodging and entertainment services plus onboard AV support create a superior environment for productivity and reward at an easy-to-budget price point likely superior to a comparable land based venue. With each new ship introduced, the facilities for meeting and incentive travel improve. As we anticipate continued passenger growth in the years to come, we anticipate growth in the MICE segment as well,” said Sharak.

Here are nine tips to successfully selling and executing meetings and incentives at sea:

1) Cruises equal savings: A cruise is typically 30%-40% less than a comparable land-based program, said Kling. “When you’re booking hotels, you’re just looking at hotel rates, without knowing how meals will add up, and when you’re already committed to rooms, you don’t have leverage to negotiate meal costs. At sea, it’s all included. Even food at cocktail parties which could cost as much as $60-$70 per person on land might be complimentary aboard ship. In addition, there’s also no labor, drayage, no decorations needed to make the venue look nice, and it’s cheaper to have room delivery distribution of pillow gifts and notes,” she noted.

2) Clients think they’re getting more: Suggest a cruise when clients need to save money but have a concern that attendees will notice that they’re cutting back, said Kling. “Participants can’t compare a cruise with what you booked [on land] last year. The typical land agenda is cocktail party first night, dine-around second night, gala dinner final night. On a cruise, they perceive they’re getting more — all meals, buffets, room service, activities all day, nightly entertainment.”

3) There’s less hassle for the planner and the client: The planning is easy, said Gehl. “It’s all-inclusive so there’s no decisions to be made about how much to pay for staging, A/V, meals, meeting space. There’s total freedom of choice when it comes to menus — there are even spa menu choices and 24-hour room service. Plus clients can be sure that all participants will show up at meetings. People can’t get stuck in traffic or in the snow. They’re a captive audience,” he said.

4) There’s flexibility at sea: Ships can accommodate all sizes of groups, from small board meetings to programs for up to 5,400 attendees, if you decide to charter the Oasis of the Seas. Though it’s atypical, some programs can run as short as two nights — “those are gem cruises when you can find them," said Kling.

5) Sometimes, it’s not a good fit: Gehl estimates that 95% of meetings lend themselves to cruises, but cautions that if most of the group wants single accommodations, some of the cost-savings could be lost. Cruise lines typically charge 200% of the twin cost for single accommodations, he said.

Kling is less concerned about single supplements, but warned that groups which usually have very short (two day) meetings or typically stays at airport hotels are probably not interested in the activities a cruise has to offer, adding that those who meet for eight hours a day, or need a lot of exhibition space, are also probably not a good fit.

6) Creativity onboard: Sometimes cruises work even when not the obvious choice. “We’ve had clients hold after-dinner meetings from 8-11pm and still play 13 holes of golf during the day,” she said. “And there are creative ways to use the ship for exhibit space — from advising clients to switch to tabletop displays which can be used in the dining room between meals, to putting a hard floor down over the ice-skating rink on a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) ship, and use full-size exhibits.”

Another possibility when more exhibit space is needed than a ship can provide, said Gehl, is to charter a ship and take advantage of all of the amenities and cost-savings by using it as the hotel, while exhibiting at a port-based convention center or the ballroom of a local hotel. He mentioned the Miami Convention Center as one he often uses in such cases.

One way to know if your group is right for an event at sea is to take the “Is Your Event Ship Shape” quiz on the SeaSite Web site at http://www.seasite.com/CruiseMeetingHome/ssq.aspx.

7) Secrets to additional savings: There are always ways to save more, said Elaine Crutchfield, the groups, incentives and meetings manager at North Carolina-based Mann Travels/American Express. She makes a practice of checking cruise rates even after contracts are signed.

“For an RCCL cruise of 250 passengers we ran this past December, rates dropped significantly after we initially contracted our space. By keeping alert, we were able to renegotiate the rate and save $100 per person, or $25,000 for the entire group,” she said.

Gehl negotiates on everything, but said his success is tied to volume and experience — a good reason to book meetings on cruises repeatedly. “There are things we can do that the person who comes to the well once a year can’t do, like negotiating amenities that others might have had to pay for — premium brands and live music at cocktail parties, ice carvings with our client’s company logo ….We can even eliminate attrition (charges) sometimes — like last week when we saved our client $12,000 on a Carnival cruise,” he said.

Kling said that one often-overlooked cost savings is the liquor package that’s offered aboard all major cruise lines and includes drinks all day and wine at dinner. ”It works if the client is a company that typically hosts liquor and drinks during the day,” she said.

Gehl takes a different approach and in these cases will suggest a $50 per day cabin credit which guests can use for liquor or other onboard services and purchases.

That way the guests who don’t drink aren’t penalized, and liability for the client is lessened in case of alcohol-induced accidents,” he said.

8) Be aware of tax-deductibility issues: According to SeaSite.com, “a company can take employees, independent contractors or customers on a cruise and can tax deduct the related expenses as a normal cost of doing business, but the participants must shoulder the tax burden for the fair market value of cruise benefits received.  Paying the tax is usually acceptable to participants in an incentive cruise that’s full of free time, personal recognition, and new experiences, however it’s less desirable for participants to pay taxes on a business trip dominated by a highly focused, serious meeting agenda with little personal time (even if it is aboard ship).”

Landry and Kling, who run the SeaSite Web site, suggest a “radical” solution: "If the sponsoring corporation chooses not to take the tax deduction, there’s no tax burden to pass on to the participants. Since cruise programs (without benefit of any tax deduction) usually cost less than a comparable resort program with the tax deduction benefit factored in, this is a choice worth considering.” 

On SeaSite, Landry and Kling list several suggestions for meetings that offer up to $2,000 worth of deductibility, usually staying within U.S. waters. (see http://www.seasite.com/KnowledgeCenter/tax_deductibility/business_meetings_at_sea.aspx). 

Gehl offered his own solutions to the tax dilemma, including having the meetings on land and using the ship as transportation to the meeting. In that case, he said, “it doubles the tax deductibility.” For example, on a cruise that sails to Puerto Rico, he might use the San Juan Convention Center for meetings while the ship is in port. “We’ll have the meeting on shore and then cruise,” he said.

Editor's Note: Be sure to consult a tax professional to evaluate the tax ramifications of meetings at sea. Landry and Kling suggest consulting with Howe & Hutton (www.howehutton.com or 312-263-3001), who are general counsel to both Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and the Society of Incentive Travel Executives (SITE). 

9) Know the resources: The SeaSite.com Web site is free to use and is a great time-saver, according to Kling. She says that it’s the only place planners can access information about the meeting facilities aboard all the cruise ships in one place — information they took months to compile themselves. SeaSite also offers ways to drill down information to arrive at the perfect selection of cruises for your group’s particular needs. www.seasite.com.

Companies like Landry and Kling and Contacts Unlimited also book cruises for meeting planners, and are paid by revenue share.

Agents like Olga Ramudo of Miami-based Express Travel go to Landry and Kling for assistance when a group is too big to handle on their own without adding more overhead.

“We’ll handle groups of 150 cabins or less on our own but if larger, we’ll partner with them for the extra assistance. They are concentrated on that part of the business. It’s easy for us to refer it to them and we work together, using part of their staff. They do most of the work and we do the airfare,” said Ramudo.