Avanti Destinations Launches Pre-/Post-Cruise Microsite for 63 Port Cities

Avanti Destinations wants to make it easier for cruise-booking travel advisors to put together pre- and/or post-cruise FIT city stays. The custom tour operator has launched a microsite, built especially for cruise-sellers who don’t normally book FIT stays for their clients.

“Many advisors get started in FIT travel by booking pre- or post-cruise stays in port cities,” explained Nate Guilfoyle, director of web services at Avanti. “This new microsite has been designed to be particularly accessible and intuitive to use for advisors who book lots of cruises, but who have not yet tried booking pre- and post- with Avanti.”

The microsite offers access to a wide range of three-, four-, and five-star hotels, sightseeing activities, and transfers in 63 port cities around the world.

“This gives advisors the flexibility to tailor each pre-/post-cruise stay to exactly what their client is looking for,” Guilfoyle added.

As an example, in Barcelona Avanti offers 49 hotels and 37 tours to choose from. In Rome, there are 31 hotels and 88 tours, and in Kyoto there are 26 hotels and 47 tours.

Two-night minimum stays are required.

Interested advisors can sign up at http://cruise.avantidestinations.com, where they’ll also find a tutorial on how the site works and how to save a proposed pre-/post-cruise stay, among other features.

In keeping with the new California law that requires total pricing, advisors can easily add their own agency fee into the total trip price. Only trip protection quotes are displayed as a separate cost.

“The proposed pre-/post-package the advisors shares with their client is completely interactive, so the client can look at the description of the hotel, tours, and transfers. We also give advisors the ability to add links to the specific cruise descriptions from the cruise line’s site for easy reference,” Guilfoyle said.