CLIA’s New Membership Structure: Good or Bad for Agents?

When CLIA announced sweeping changes to its membership structure in September, the travel agency community at large seemed to signed on.

Travel agents’ approval, however, was not unanimous.

Some agents were dismayed at the changes, which they feared would result in CLIA member lines collecting information on what individual agents sell.

Others questioned CLIA’s effectiveness in communicating the changes.

Individual memberships
The new structure calls for agents to individually register with CLIA in order to receive the perks of a CLIA membership, ranging from client-facing bonuses to increased educational opportunities.

Travel agencies also will now have to pay for each of its agents registered with CLIA.

“If you look at this all from a 20,000 foot level, the changes are aligned with the economics of selling travel today,” Dwain Wall, then CLIA’s vice president of trade relations, told Travel Market Report about the impetus behind the changes.

Conflicting interests?
But the new structure has raised questions about the very nature of CLIA as a trade organization.

Can it do an effective job of representing agents’ interests while advocating in Washington for the cruise lines—and while serving as an overall agent of the international cruise industry?

“We have no choice but to join, but what will we get in return?” asked the president of a top travel agency who had already signed on to the new program.

“They’re [CLIA] still trying to qualify their value proposition, but what is the overlap with ASTA, ACTA and USTOA?” asked the president, who requested anonymity.

Overall, she said she doesn’t view the changes as helpful to her agency, despite the value-added perks for cruise agents.

“Most people aren’t very thrilled with it,” she claimed. “Do travel agents really need three different cards?”

Value proposition
Another agency executive, also speaking off the record, questioned CLIA’s motives as a group nominally representing the interests of cruise sellers.

“What does CLIA really do for agents? Are they going to fight NCFs for us?” she asked. “At the end of the day, this brings down the membership level cost per contractor. But the value proposition is really constraining.”

Ultimately, she said CLIA’s success will be based on how effectively it can serve the needs of travel agents.

“If CLIA does become a reputable voice for the cruise community, I may want to have that training [that CLIA is offering],” said the executive.

A different perspective
Many smaller agencies have a more positive view of the changes at CLIA, although there are dissenting opinions here as well.

Lisa Silvestri, owner of Sarasota, Fla.-based Silvestri Travel, a member of The Affluent Traveler Collection, said CLIA’s membership benefits, given her credentials with other organizations, are redundant.

“I found that I really only need my IATA number and card,” said Silvestri.
 
“The [educational] program is watered down and more of a sales pitch [for the cruise lines] than what I am personally and professionally looking to support.”

Educational opportunities
Other agents, however, believe the new developments will mean greater opportunities for agents to learn the business and will put them in a better position to offer their clients greater value.

And they believe the new offerings mean that CLIA is finally investing in the agency community.

“I think the new changes at CLIA are definitely good for agents,” said Alan Rosenbaum, a CruiseOne agent in Johns Creek, Ga.

“Previously, CLIA represented cruise lines and [large] agencies—now there’s an outreach to those of us in the trenches.”

Recouping agents’ investment
According to Charles “Russ” Russell, “The bonus commissions and incentives being offered by CLIA’s cruise line members significantly adds to their value, and make it pretty easy to recoup the investment the individual agent makes in their career.”

Russell, owner of a Cruise Planners franchise in New Braunfels, Tex., said that by offering different membership types for agencies of different sizes, CLIA is trying to appeal to more fragmented members of the travel agency community.

“The new membership structure recognizes previously unrecognized segments of the profession: the consortia, the franchisee and home-based agents, who are the majority of today’s travel agent community,” Russell added.

“The new benefits and lower membership pricing ultimately should drive a larger membership base and we all know that in today’s ‘lobby-rich’ environment there is strength in numbers.”

Growing pains
“All in all, CLIA has been good for me and my agency; I think they are just going through some growing pains,” said Marlys Aballi, owner of Connection to Cruise Travel, a NEST agency in Redlands, Calif.

“I have not viewed them as forwarding the interest of cruise lines above all, but let’s say they are? One hand washes the other.”