Cruise Lines’ Global Focus Creates Sales Opportunities for Agents

U.S. cruise lines’ growing focus on marketing their cruises overseas represents a new opportunity for travel agents in North America – as long as they learn how to sell the international cruises and identify which clients to target.

“There are advantages to being in an international crowd,” said Vicki Freed, Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of sales. “Some clients will thrive in that situation. Others won’t. If you are someone who wants to be in a homogeneous American crowd, some of these cruises don’t provide that.”

The key to successfully selling international cruises is understanding and communicating their differences to clients, said Freed. She talked with Travel Market Report about those differences and how agents can capitalize on the cruise lines’ shift to global marketing.

A sales opportunity
When Royal Caribbean announced it was moving its popular 3,114-passenger Voyager of the Seas to China some agents may have thought, “well, there goes the ship,” Freed said. A second Voyager-class ship, Mariner of the Seas, will also head to China next year, adding additional capacity for the line in that fast-growing market.

But Freed said those moves should be viewed as a sales opportunity, provided agents first educate clients about what they’ll encounter if they cruise with the line overseas.

Qualifying the client
Agents need to ask their clients simple questions in order to sell them on international cruises, Freed said. “’Who do you want to cruise with?’” she said. “Our reservations people will say, for instance, ‘This is going to be a South American audience.’

“Agents should ask the client, ‘What kind of people would you like to be around, Americans or an international, eclectic group? And will you find that fun?’ Some people will say, ‘I want to meet people from different places,'” said Freed.

The international difference
There are differences  in ships that visit international markets and those that homeport there, so agents need to learn about immersion cruises where there are many international passengers versus an American product.

“If you book an Asia or a China cruise on Crystal versus us, it is two different types of audiences,” Freed said. “You have to understand that on some of our deployments there is an immersion. You will have a lot of Chinese people on our cruises. Some Americans will struggle when they are in the minority.”

Royal Caribbean tweaks its onboard offerings for its Asia cruises by including more Mandarin-speaking crew and entertainers and reconfiguring kitchens for wok stations and other equipment to properly prepare Chinese cuisine.

But that doesn’t mean American passengers won’t find plenty to like, she added.

Full disclosure
Freed believes the worst thing agents can do when suggesting an international cruise is not be forthcoming about who will be onboard and what onboard changes clients might encounter.

“The cuisine on Voyager in China is more directed to a Chinese audience and it’s different,” she explained. “The Chinese are very into chicken so we are adding more chicken dishes. And they want peanuts in the lounges, not pretzels. We have to cater to different tastes.”

Royal Caribbean has stocked its three ships in the Australian market with local beer, while in South America dinner hours are late and later with 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. seatings, Freed said.

Don’t be afraid to book
Royal Caribbean’s China cruises, together with long-distance airfares, are actually a “good sell” for the right American passenger, according to Freed.

“Sell it, but qualify it. This is not a meat and potatoes crowd,” she said. “The Chinese audience is upper middle class and upper class, so they are going to speak English, by and large. They will be intelligent and interesting and some American clients will find that really interesting.”

A good clue as to whether a cruise is a match for Americans is whether the itinerary is marketed in the U.S and appears in the reservation system, Freed said.

All Royal Caribbean’s cruises can be booked by U.S. agents in U.S. dollars for U.S. passengers. As the company expands globally under that brand, Americans will always be welcome to sail, said Freed. That’s different, for instance, from sister brand Pullman Tours, which is geared towards the Spanish market and hosts few U.S. passengers.

Newer tonnage overseas
One change that’s putting international markets on U.S. agents’ radar is in the ships that are being moved overseas.

“In the old days, developing markets got old tonnage,” Freed said. “With Voyager and Mariner in China you have big, exciting, fun, beautiful ships.

“The cruise lines want to go in there and make a bold statement. Can you imagine a Chinese audience seeing the Royal Promenade, the rock-climbing wall, the ice skating rink? They’ll go crazy,” she added.

But what should agents tell clients when their favorite ship moves to, say, China?

“When a ship goes to a different destination, a lot of people who have a favorite go right back on it. They like the crew and captain. They follow the ship,” said Freed.