Inside Celestyal’s Push to Win Over North American Travel Advisors

In January 2024, Celestyal announced the expansion of its North America trade team, upping Cyndi Berardi to manager of trade sales support and operations, as well as Stephanie McDonald to manager, partner training and development. 

TMR had the opportunity to sit down with Berardi and McDonald at a recent FAM trip on the Celestyal Journey, experiencing the new Heavenly Greece, Italy & Croatia itinerary. Brandon Townsley, vice president & managing director, North America, provided additional context via a statement.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TMR: How have you updated Celestyal’s trade resources to better support North American travel advisors? 

McDonald: The Celestyal Compass was created for the U.K. Now, we’re trying to change it a little bit to cater more to the North American market. Every market is distinct.

I’m currently working with colleagues in the U.K. and Greece on the next evolution of the Campus, which is our training portal. We’re just launching a new Desert Days with that, and we’re creating a more elevated Heavenly product for our Heavenly Greece, Italy, Croatia, and Montenegro.

Townsley: Celestyal Compass is evolving into a best-in-class resource to help travel advisors navigate their Celestyal journey, much like a ship’s navigator who uses a compass to guide a ship’s course. Travel advisors have the opportunity to gain greater insight around Celestyal’s brand identity and unique selling points, grow their destination expertise and knowledge as well as create unmissable experiences for their clients who sail with us on one of our Greek Isles, Adriatic Sea or Arabian Gulf itineraries.

Berardi: My team audits Compass for its content. You know, things change, promotions change, focuses change, sales focuses change… we were also involved in [Compass] prior to it being launched. 

What we like to say in my department is that we speak North American travel agent fluently. Our job is to make it easy for the travel agents to sell our product.

Townsley: Being responsible for North America, I am very excited about the opportunity travel advisors have to ‘meet the team” on Celestyal Compass and connect with their Business Development Manager or support specialist who can help create memorable cruise vacations for their clients who seek unmissable experiences in the most sought after destinations in the Eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf.

TMR: What are some of the key differences between the travel trade in the U.K. compared to North America? What has been the biggest hurdle?

Berardi: North America in general has very high standards, and there’s a lot of competition. We are known in our European markets… But in North America, we’re the underdog.

McDonald: Getting the word out there is key. And so I try to get as many events that I possibly can, and making sure that I’m socialising with the agents and getting them on board for the different FAM trips. 

It takes a little bit of time [for advisors to] trust in their BDMs. We’ve hired some seasoned BDMs who come from all different facets of the industry, but all have significant tenure, and they have those relationships with agents and agencies. That is getting Celestyal’s foot in the door in a lot of places that it wouldn’t have before.

Berardi: The devil is in the details in North America. Our biggest struggle has been [getting] the minute details because, in a lot of our markets, the travel agents are more like tour operator-type partners. They’re not hands-on “advisors.” So sometimes it’s difficult to get the information that we really need.

Where’s the closest ATM? Where’s the closest pharmacy? How many more steps is it to the bathroom? Do you need euros? You know, not just about the actual cruising experience, but about the entire experience—the ports and whatnot. 

McDonald: A lot of what my job was in the past year has been building an educational platform for our agents. I’ve created all of the trainings that our BDMS do — live or webinar.

We partnered with TA Connect last year, and that was a real game changer because I was able to tap into different networks and do presentations. Working with any host agency, I can see exactly how many emails we have for them sending out webinar requests. I’ve had a lot of people coming and going.

The ones that have had huge engagement are when one of our other reps comes back from a destination. I’ve had up to 600 people attending those. I’ll be doing one in two weeks about Heavenly—specifically about the ports using my pictures, and what I did from a more personal perspective.

TMR: How does Celestyal fit into the greater cruise landscape in the U.S. and Canada?

McDonald: There are a lot of contemporary brands. There are a lot of premium brands. There are a lot of luxury [brands], especially in the luxury sector. There are a lot of smaller ships that are coming out right now. 

We are in a really unique sweet spot. I’d say that we’re not contemporary and we’re not premium. We’re kind of right in the middle. And that’s not to say that we don’t have contemporary premium, even luxury within ourselves, but we can be priced very contemporary, which means that we can be affordable to so many different people. And we have a product that feels premium without being overly formal.

We can cater to so many people that want to start moving towards a more luxury [experience], moving towards fewer guests on board, but price-point wise, [luxury] may not be suitable for them.

Berardi: Celestyal Journey is an absolutely beautiful ship. There’s no space that’s overcrowded. I think the ship in itself is kind of a surprise to people when they come on board, they’re blown away. It’s beautiful but understated. It’s not overdone. 

We’ve heard a lot of [positive] feedback this week for the ship and the food—the quality of the food and the staff. A lot of our staff are Celestyal employees. They’ve been with us for a very long time, you know, so that continuity shows. That’s something that people don’t expect at our price point. 

Another thing is our destinations [and curated shore excursions]. We offer a huge variety, whether you’re active, you’re cultural, you’re a foodie, or you’re relaxing. There’s always an option. Most of our ports also have beaches, so you can get that iconic Greece beach vacation if that’s what you’re looking for. 

Our shore excursion team back in Greece is amazing and they do look for those things that people want to see.