Carnival Cruise Line Adds Travel Agent Tools, Business Development Managers

Carnival Cruise Line has added new travel agent tools and staff members that it says will help support its travel agent partners, particularly on group bookings.

Travel agents can now take advantage of four new business development managers in Boston and Rhode Island, Jacksonville, and West Texas, as well as the Four Corners border region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

In addition, Carnival has created a new Independent Agent Program and launched its new dedicated Group Desk to assist agents making larger bookings.

“These are all initiatives based on feedback collected by travel agents like YOU and our team continues to think of new ways to support you in your day to day,” vice president of sales and trade marketing Adolfo Perez said on Facebook.

The Group Desk will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m on Saturdays.

The Independent Agent Program, which was created in response to the growth of the independent agent channel, will offer training, dedicated newsletters, and webinars to home-based agents. The new program will be led by senior director of sales Alicia Steuart and senior director of trade and community relations Sheila LeBlanc.

The news is yet another initiative that Perez and his sales team at Carnival have created to support the trade. 

Recently, Carnival announced the second edition of its “Amp Up Commission Program.”

The new version, which follows the last September’s version, will allow agencies to bump up their commission to 15 percent by recording 125 bookings between Jan. 1 and March 31 of 2018. Once agencies reach the booking threshold, they will earn 15 percent commission on all new bookings made April 1 to Dec. 31, 2018.

Also this year, in May, Carnival changed its payment policy to allow agents and guests to pay for their sailing in three monthly installments through a new EasyPay program.

And in July, Carnival announced it would pay travel agents their commission on bookings made with future cruise credits.