NCL’s New President Marc Kazlauskas: ‘I Have the Advisor’s Back’

It’s been just about five months since Marc Kazlauskas took the reins at Norwegian Cruise Line as president. No stranger to the travel industry, the 30-year industry veteran not only has experience on the supplier side, he’s spent lots of time on the advisor side of the equation, as well.

“My time at Frosch and Avoya and JP Morgan was completely having an understanding and empathy for the travel agents and the travel agency community,” he told TMR during a sit-down interview at last month’s CLIA Cruise360 conference in Fort Lauderdale. “I bring a real unique perspective because I understand what they go through every day… and I understand how to be a great partner to them.”

While Kazlauskas believes his background on the retail side played a part in his hiring at NCL, he also credits his “really good chops” and “diverse leadership” for his appointment.

Kazlauskas’ leadership style fits in perfectly with NCL, whose Partners First program – which just celebrated 15 years – has always been about listening to and acting on what travel advisors need. But Kazlauskas has added a third piece.

“I added: listen, act, listen,” he told TMR. “It’s not just listen. We act on their suggestions and then we listen again to see if we have to make alterations or changes. We want their feedback.”

Though the elimination of NCFs preceded Kazlauskas’ appointment, the policy is a perfect example of listening to advisors and acting on their needs, he said.

“The trade had been extremely supportive of NCL, [saying] we love the company. We love the product. We love your sales support. We love your marketing support. We feel that the non-commissionable items on all cruise lines was an inhibitor and we feel we need to be paid fairly. And we, as a company, agreed. And we said that makes sense.”

“Now, we’re seeing the fruits of it, which is great,” he added, but he admitted he feels like still not enough advisors know about the change in policy.

“I think it can get out a little more. I know the agents that support us love it and appreciate it, but I always think, there’s over 100,000 advisors. The chances are there’s going to be a small pocket that don’t know and I want all 100,000-plus to be supporting us and understanding that we stepped up because we believed it was the right thing to do.”

What Makes a Good Supplier Partner?

Norwegian’s ability to listen and act and its elimination of NCFs aren’t the only things that Kazlauskas says make it a good partner to advisors.

“When you look at the advisor relationship, I have always said, even when I was on the retail side, that there’s three things that make a good partnership in this industry: commercial, support, and I have your back.”

Commercially, Kazlauskas said, NCL’s team of BDMs is always available, as is chief sales officer, John Chernesky.

“We’ve got your back. It’s that listen, act, listen. It’s our accessibility. Few cruise lines are as accessible as we are from my level throughout the whole organization,” he said. “Reach out to me. Reach out to John Chernesky, any of our sales staff. We’re all there to help.”

NCLU Marketing Headquarters Designed for Busy Advisors

When it comes to support, NCL has that covered too, though Kazlauskas said he’d like to see more advisors taking advantage of the resources available on the NCLU Marketing Headquarters.

With 800 individual pieces of marketing, sales collateral, and training, the Marketing Headquarters gives advisors the “ability to understand everything about NCL, which clients are good for NCL, and how to market NCL,” he said. “There’s so much information there. I would love agents to use that more.”

We asked Kazlauskas why he thinks the Marketing Headquarters is underused.

“When I look at the advisor world, they’re really busy. I mean, insanely busy,” he said. “I think suppliers don’t really understand how busy the day is for a very good productive travel advisor.”

He added that he always recommends advisors to take an hour a day to learn, market, or assess their business. NCLU Marketing Headquarters can help with the first two.

“Take an hour a day to take a deep breath and review your clients. Review how you’re going to increase your business. Review how you can get repeat and refer.”

A Few Words on Lagging Behind Some Timelines

TMR asked Kazlauskas to speak to travel advisors about some of the brand’s recent development delays, particularly at Great Stirrup Cay and the Philadelphia cruise port, and what messaging advisors pass along to their clients about these projects.

“First and foremost, construction always at some point has delays,” he said, adding that the extremely snowy winter in the Northeast put Philadelphia behind by several weeks. But, while yes, Great Stirrup Cay is behind schedule, the important thing to focus on there is what’s already and in place and what it will offer when it’s done.

“We’ve already built some incredible pieces of the island. That’s Silver Cove. That’s the cabanas. That’s our incredible lagoon pool and our kids splash pad. What’s coming next this summer will now take us to a new level and that’s Great Tides Water Park.”

He also added that in the future he promises to make sure NCL is always communicative about what’s going on.

“That’s where I feel good about looking at agents to say, when we deliver something in the future, we will be communicative and transparent.”

As for the Philadelphia terminal, Kazlauskas said the current set-up is working well.

“We have a great pier. We have a giant tent set up. We have a hotel partnership where people can check in and, in the summer, get air conditioning and relax. And we have buses right at the airport.”

On What an NCLH Activist Investor Doesn’t Mean for the Advisor Community

With so much talk around Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ need to turn things around and pressure from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, TMR asked Kazlauskas if he’s at all worried that the focus on the bottom line could result in a reversal of the no NCF policy.

Kazlauskas said that’s not on the table.

“We listen to our investors. We listen to our agents. We listen to our clients. We listen to our employees. We take all of it in and then we make decisions. We’ve got a good plan, a good strategy. Agents, as far as I’m concerned, are in the best hands. One is because I run the company and they understand that I respect and understand how important they are… We look at travel advisors as an extension of our sales force and how important they are to us and how important they are to our future.”