Carnival’s SVP of Sales and Trade Janet Wygert on the Importance of Strong BDM/Advisor Relationships

After four decades, almost entirely on the sales side of the equation for Carnival Cruise Line, Janet Wygert has a better understanding of the value that travel advisors and agencies bring to the cruise lines and what they need from cruise lines than almost anyone else.  

“The trade is incredibly important,” she told TMR at last month’s CLIA Cruise360 conference in Fort Lauderdale. “What they do matters… They’re crucial to our business.”

Wygert doesn’t only see it from one perspective. From her time as a BDM, she learned about the power in partnerships, the importance of building relationships, and the importance of helping travel advisors grow their own businesses.

During her time in strategic partnerships, she learned how to work with Carnival’s biggest partners and look at sales from a bigger picture perspective.

It was during her time in strategic sales that she began working with Adolfo Perez, whom she replaced as senior vice president of sales and trade marketing in April 2025.

“I really respect what he did. He had a significant impact on our team and on the trade. For me, it’s not trying to fill his shoes. The truth is, I wear different shoes… I’m looking to evolve our relationships with partners, continuing to grow, and looking forward and seeing how we continue to support the trade.”

She added everything has led her to her current position.

“When I was a BDM, I worked with local travel advisors. When I was in Strategic Partners, I worked with some of the biggest national partners. Now, I get to work with everybody, meet all these advisors, and all of their different models. It challenges me on how we can best help and support their individual and unique needs.”

The Power of the BDM/Advisor Partnership

We asked Wygert: what’s something – be it a product or advisor service – that Carnival offers that advisors are overlooking?

She didn’t skip a beat.

“The thing that is most overlooked is the value of working with your BDM,” she said immediately. “Whether you’re an office that has six, 600 or 6,000, your BDM should become an extension of your business,” she said.

She added that business development managers at Carnival Cruise Line have only one job: to support travel agencies and help them grow their business.

“That is teaching them tricks, teaching them how to use our tools, sharing what our tools are, helping them go out and mine for group business, help them create a marketing plan. Whatever their needs are, we want to support them.”

Wygert has an important message for advisors:

“Believe me when I say, every travel advisor matters because everybody has the opportunity to grow. I don’t care if you’re one person or if you’re 10. I can give you lots of people that we’ve worked with that are one-person agencies that do significant business.”

To reach more agencies, Wygert spent her first year in her new role expanding the field sales team at Carnival.

“We are making sure they are very visible and I’ve been very vocal to the trade: if you don’t know your BDM, let us know. Email us. We will get your connected. If you do know your BDM, and they’re reaching out to you, please meet with them. Even if you don’t think you have Carnival business. They can help your business overall… At the least, let’s start and build that relationship.”

Finding Group Business

One of the most impactful ways a BDM can help an advisor is to find group business, something Wygert said advisors often struggle with.

“Advisors sometimes say to me, I don’t have any group business. I don’t have any contacts. Honestly, I think sometimes people don’t recognize how connected they are… Do you go to a church? Do you go to a gym? Do you belong to a VFW, some type of organization? What do you do for fun?”

In the end, BDMs are able to help advisors create lead trees, but that’s not all.

“Groups are a quick way to grow your business, but there’s also other ways. And that relationship with the BDM is the way to start,” she added.

Selling Elevated Cabin Categories

Another quick win for advisors is to sell Carnival’s array of elevated cabin categories, including suites on the Excel class, Havana Cabanas on Vista and Excel, spa cabins, and even the remaining Family Harbor cabins.

“We’ve spent the last year really talking about that because we weren’t sure that all of our travel advisors really understood the value of booking those elevated cabins,” she told TMR. “And, of course, it also makes them more commission.”

More importantly, she said, “It represents to your customer that you understand value, because it’s not really about what you pay. It’s about what you get. Those customers that want that experience, it’s about what they get.”

It’s a message that Wygert and her team continue to push, especially with Excel’s suites.

“Does everyone know it? Probably not, but we have been talking about it for the last year, because we want to make sure that their customers, that they, understand the value of those extra benefits.”

What Travel Advisors Should Be Excited About

When it comes to the next several years or so, there’s plenty for travel advisors to be excited about when it comes to Carnival Cruise Line’s future, Wygert told TMR – for both clients and the advisors themselves.

“There is so much opportunity… not only for your guest, for having these great experiences, but for travel advisors to build their business,” she said.

On the product side, that incudes two more Excel Class ships – Carnival Tropicale and Carnival Festivale – as well as three Ace Class ships, arriving in 2029, 2031, and 2033.

“We are going to continue to elevate the experience on Carnival.”

Wygert is also excited about the debut of Mardi Gras in the short cruise market in 2027, which she believes will bring in “more people into the pipeline.”

Carnival is also focusing on its private destinations, including Celebration Key, Relax Away at Half Moon Cay, and Isla Tropical (formerly Mahogany Bay). All are undergoing various stages of development, with only phase one of Celebration Key complete.

“As we learn more and we take a look at guest feedback, we’re going to continue to make changes. And that’s just phase one.”

Construction at Relax Away at Half Moon Cay includes the building of a pier, as well as building up the north side of the island. At Isla Tropical, a new pool should be opening soon.

On the travel advisor side of the equation, Wygert said her team is always listening for opportunities. Only recently, Carnival rolled out the ability for advisors to book multiple cabins in one booking.

“It sounds like a silly thing, but if they were going to book three cabins on our booking engine, it had to be one at a time. Now they can do three at a time… We take feedback from our travel partners very seriously. The multi-cabin thing, for example, came directly from their feedback.”

Ultimately, Wygert told TMR, she knows travel advisors have a hard job to do and “they need all the support they can get… I’m very, very focused on a one-team approach. We are one team and we have one goal and that goal is supporting our travel advisors.”