Carnival Moves to E-Brochures in May

Continuing its move towards an electronic universe, Carnival Cruise Line alerted travel agents this week that as of early- to mid-May, it will be transitioning to E-brochures.

In the e-mail sent to agent partners, Carnival said it will not replenish its supply of traditional fleet brochures once they are depleted, which it anticipates will happen in early May. Though the line cited environmental responsibility as one reason for the decision, it said the change in consumer shopping patterns was the main driving force behind the change.

“We have found the brochures have become less important to consumers as more and more do their vacation planning online. Additionally, we have found traditional brochures, unfortunately, become quickly outdated and do not provide accurate information for your guests,” the e-mail said.

Not surprisingly some agents were none too happy at the news, though not all agents felt the move was a bad thing, and most did not believe their selling process would be affected.

“I was extremely disappointed to hear of Carnival’s decision to go to E-brochures,” Nancy F. Yoffe, ECC, of a South Carolina Cruise Planners, told Travel Market Report. “I use printed brochures every day in my business both for myself and for my clients.”

Bill Page, president of ALL ABOARD CRUISES & Travel, added: “It is a shame that everything is going to “e” this and “e” that. I think customers will still want traditional brochures.”

Yoffe said that every client she books gets a brochure for two reasons. First, they hold invaluable information and second, because they set the excitement and tone for her clients’ upcoming vacations.

John Gawne, owner of a Cruises Inc. agency, agreed that printed brochures hold invaluable information mostly for his own use, but felt clients wouldn’t miss them.

“I have always stocked a limited quantity of each cruse line’s brochures, but very few customers ask for them, mostly those who don’t have computers.”

Amber Blecker, owner of a Colorado-based CruiseOne, told TMR that while clients are only asking for e-brochures, she agrees that the majority of passengers are getting their information online.

“There are times when I have had a client absolutely insist on a brochure before booking, most recently about a month ago, but overall I have a highly Web-savvy clientele,” she said.

Like Gawne, Yoffe told TMR that some of her clients do no have access to the Internet.

“This leaves those clients who do not have a computer at an extreme disadvantage. E-brochures do not come close to providing the same needs and service of a printed brochure.”

But while Gawne has always offered such clients the brochures, he, in fact, prefers not to give out brochures. “In my opinion, giving them the brochure invites them to contact the cruise line directly, since they don’t need me to select cabins, or so they think, and the cruise line reservations number is always on the brochure.”

For himself, Gawne likes to use brochures to quickly check cruise line policies and see deck plans. However, he told TMR that Carnival’s bookccl.com agent portal is very complete and offers the same information – it just takes a little longer to get.

Gawne will not miss the printed brochures overly much, and predicts many other home-based agents, like himself, will not either.

“Agents who have used brochures for years, or had racks of them at store front operations, will feel the loss. Home-based agents who rely on the Internet to seek information and communicate with clients electronically shouldn’t miss them much.”

But Yoffe, also a home-based agent, doesn’t agree.

According to Yoffe, to serve clients without computers or Internet access she will now need to print the e-brochures and send them through the mail.

“I cannot afford to print these brochures for my clients,” she added. “That is the job of the cruise lines.”

Blecker also told TMR she may have to do a bit more printing, “for those clients without in-home Web access,” but didn’t believe this would effect her selling overall. “As long as Carnival provides the Web information in an easily-printable form, it won’t be a major obstacle in my business.”

But Yoffe disagrees. “Carnival has become the Wal-Mart of the cruise lines. They are looking at any and every way to put travel agents at a disadvantage and drive more direct business to them.”

She added that Carnival should come up with better pricing in order to provide travel agents the tools they need to sell Carnival ships.

“There is cost to doing business and brochures are just one of the costs,” she added.

However, recognizing that agents will sometimes need pre-printed materials, Carnival Cruise Line is not eliminating printed documents entirely.

In place of the traditional brochures the line will be producing a Vacation Planning Guide that features the Carnival Experience and highlights of the destinations it visits. The guide will come in two sizes – a typical brochure size for retail offices and a more compact version (“event” size) for trade shows and events.

According to a Carnival spokesperson, the printed Vacation Planning Guide will include a variety of Carnival images, sample itineraries, and the most current information in a user-friendly format. There will also be a printed At-A-Glance brochure just for travel agents which provides an overview of Carnival ships, itineraries and homeports. 

This is good news for Page who said that he hands out lots of brochures at trade shows. Though the absence of such brochures would not affect his overall selling, he said that it most likely would effect his selling of Carnival.

Carnival has launched an e-brochures section on its bookccl.com agent portal to help agents provide “relevant information with up to date itineraries for their guests” via customizable e-brochures. According to Carnival, the e-brochures tool does not require agents to sign in and takes only three steps. Detailed instructions are offered on bookccl.com.

“We encourage travel agents to not print out our eBrochures and mail them but rather to e-mail the eBrochures to their clients and save on time, postage and natural resources,” the Carnival spokesperson said.

The brochure-sized Vacation Planning Guides will be available in mid-May. No arrival date has been announced for the “event” version yet.