Scenic’s New Sales VP Has Big Growth Plans — and Travel Advisors Are Key

Marilyn Cairo, Scenic Group’s new vice president of sales and trade relations for the U.S. and Latin America, didn’t set out to join the river cruise industry, but she’s had her eye on it for quite some time.

“I’ve been looking at the cruise industry, just taking notice of the changes and the evolution,” she told TMR, just two weeks after joining Scenic. “It used to be just ocean. Then expedition and river, it started branching out into different specialties and I thought that’s very interesting.”

River cruising, in particular, has seen a lot of evolution, she said, adding its “no longer your grandparents’ cruise.” Since COVID ended, Cairo said she believes the age demographic for river cruises has dropped by close to 20 years.

Travel Advisor Focus

Cairo, who has spent most of her career on the hotel and packaged tour side of the industry, said she’d often wondered where within the cruise industry she would go if she had the opportunity.

Things like future growth and a strong brand presence were important to her, but, most importantly, was an organization’s respect for the travel agency community.

“Number one for me, was [a company] that values travel advisors… because my career was built off of what I’ve given to the travel advisor community and what they’ve given back to me.”

When the Scenic Group opportunity presented itself, she realized the company ticked all of her boxes.

 “To partner with a brand that believes in the advisor community as strongly as Scenic does is huge.”

More Travel Advisor Education

TMR asked Cairo what her initial plans are. After two weeks, does she already have thoughts on any changes she’d like to make?

“I have a very listen and learn approach,” she said. “I want to learn where we are today. I never want to make a decision just because I think it’s the right thing to do without understanding where the team has come from and where the ownership sees the vision of the company.”

She added that she believe Scenic Group already has a strong foothold the travel community, but she sees opportunities for further advisor education.

“What I’m looking to do now is reinforce the education and getting advisors to really understand what the Scenic brand offers, what the Emerald brand offers, and how both brands can fit into their business model,” she said.

She’s also committed to growing Scenic’s relationships with consortia and host agencies.

“Consortia are very important for Scenic and we want to make sure that we are working as hard as we need to get business from their network of advisors. Key accounts, host agencies, there’s so much opportunity.”

Most of the work she sees her team doing is boots on the ground education and making sure that advisors understand where Scenic and Emerald fit into the market, with both their river and yacht products, and then helping advisors understand that they already have Scenic and Emerald clients in their databases.

To do this, Cairo told TMR that she plans to expand the sales team, “at least by 20% on the sales team side.”

She also looks forward to learning more about what travel advisors – and their clients – need from Scenic.

“I love to listen because it’s in listening that you learn the most. It’s where you learn where you have opportunities… Nobody has a better pulse on the market than the actual advisor that’s in it day to day. They’re the ones whose phones are ringing, leads are coming in. They have the pulse on the market of what the client is asking for, so they can really help move the needle for any brand.”

Ambitious First Year Goals

While Cairo is starting her career at Scenic Group with listening and learning, she has ambitious goals for her first year.

“A successful year for me would be knowing that we as a company have 1,000 passengers booked per month – not sailed – but just bookings coming in. And then to be able to turn the year going into the new year at 80% already booked.”

She’d also like to grow Scenic Group’s key accounts by at least 30%.

Similarities Between Packaged Tours & River Cruising

Having most recently come from Classic Vacations, TMR wondered what similarities Cairo sees between the packaged tour side of the industry and river cruising.

“We touch on a lot of the same destinations,” she said. “Also, the type of client that the advisor is working with, luxury or premium. These are clients that love to travel, but now they want to upscale their travel. They want destinations that are harder to reach… They’re not looking for crowds. They’re looking for experiences,” she said.

A desire for culinary experiences that reflect the destinations is another similarity she sees between river cruisers and packaged tour goers.

River Cruising Is Easier

One difference Cairo said she sees is that river cruising is, in some ways, easier, for both the advisor and the client.

“When I was in the tour space, I used to tell them [her sales team], watch the river cruise industry. They are slowly taking our market… They’re taking it because it’s a lot easier for an advisor to put a client on a river cruise and still give them a beautiful European tour without having to piece together the rail, transfers, all of that.”