Selling Luxury Cruises: What Are the Biggest Motivators for Luxury Cruise Guests?

Interested in ramping up your luxury cruise sales? In Travel Market Report’s recent Luxury Cruise Outlook, surveyed advisors reveal what their luxury cruise clients are looking for, along with what’s holding some cruisers back. Perhaps just as interesting, the report also revealed which types of advisors are most successful overall.

Luxury Motivators
Why do some cruisers opt for luxury cruise vacations and others don’t?

Advisors surveyed said their luxury clients are motivated by a desire to have a bucket list experience or visit a bucket list destination (79%), being able to cruise on a smaller ship with fewer guests (77%), and having an overall element of luxury during their trip (63%).

That overall luxurious element comes into play when it comes to what luxury cruisers are looking for, with advisors saying that all-inclusive amenities (92%), gourmet food (90%), and big, luxurious cabins (89%) are the most essential amenities their clients are seeking.

Surprisingly, advisors, themselves, look for different amenities when weighing luxury cruise options. While all-inclusive amenities are important to 75% of advisors, unique and wide-ranging itineraries and a low guest-to-crew ratio are just as important at 74% and 72% respectively.

When it comes to factors that impact their clients’ booking decisions, advisors said included onboard amenities (81%), destinations and itineraries (79%), the experience and reputation of the cruise line (79%) and the recommendation of the advisor (59%) are most important.

Despite the fact that luxury cruises represented the highest-selling segment among repeat cruisers in 2019, overall, luxury cruises accounted for only 28% of cruise vacations sold that year. When asked what holds clients back from booking a luxury cruise, advisors cited high costs (62%), not getting their preferred destination or itinerary (43%), and the available inventory not matching their clients’ needs (35%) as the biggest hesitancy factors.

Supplier Support & Training Needed
Travel advisors generally agreed they need more support and education from suppliers when it comes to meeting their luxury cruise clients’ needs. In order to be able to make better recommendations, 76% of advisors said they feel they need more personal experience via a FAM trip, while 46% said they need more training programs. Forty-three percent said they need better call center operations support and 37% said they need improved booking tools.

When asked specifically about training, 88% of advisors said they’d prefer a FAM trip, while 70% said virtual courses would be helpful and 43% said one-day offsite training would be good.

What are advisors looking to be trained on when it comes to luxury cruises? Primarily, advisors want product and destination training (71%) and training on how to specialize in luxury cruising (68%). Forty-one percent also said they’d like training on marketing and selling luxury cruises via social media.

Storefront & Experienced Advisors Do Better
TMR’s 2022 Luxury Cruise Outlook is based on the responses of 700 travel advisors from across North America (76% from the U.S./21% from Canada). Those who are owners, managers, or employees of storefront agencies and/or those who have 20 or more years of experience in the business have overall higher gross annual sales.

Here’s what we found.

Of the 700 advisors we surveyed, more than half are independent contractors (ICs), while about a third are agency owners or managers. Of them all, about 50% are owners, managers, or employees working for a traditional agency (either with [24%] or without [24%] a storefront location). Forty-four percent are independent contractors working with a host; less than 10% are ICs working without a host.

Keeping in mind that more than 50% are ICs, the vast majority of respondents sold less than US$1 million in gross sales in 2019, with 39% selling less than $500,000 and 23% selling between $500,000 and $1 million. Twenty-five percent sold between $1 million and $4 million or more.

One more related demographic: most of the 700 advisors (53%) we surveyed have 16 or more years of experience, with only 8% having less than two years of experience and 38% have between two and 15 years of experience.

When you start combining the data, one thing becomes clear: The type of business and experience in the industry impact the annual sales volume of advisors.

Sixty percent of retail agencies with a storefront reach annual gross sales of over US $1 million. Only 19% of independent contractors crossed that threshold in 2019.

Similarly, almost half (48%) of advisors with more than 30 years of experience surpassed $1 million in gross sales. Forty percent of advisors with 20 to 30 years of experience also surpassed $1 million. Among those with less than five years of experience, only 7% crossed that threshold.

For more insights on luxury cruising from the perspective of the travel advisor community, check out the 2022 Luxury Cruise Outlook.