Make More Money Selling Tours to Past Cruisers

Travel agents are increasingly acting on the tour industry’s message that selling escorted tours will increase their commission revenues and provide their cruise clients with enhanced destination experiences.

“The incentive for a travel agent to sell escorted vacations is that it takes the same amount of work to sell a tour as it does a cruise, but you make 40% to 50% more commission,” said Skip Fortier, an independent affiliate of Avoya Travel / America’s Vacation Center (AVC).

Since Fortier began selling escorted tours three years ago, he has transitioned his business mix from 100% contemporary cruise sales to 75% escorted tour sales and 25% luxury and expedition cruises.

Fortier said inveterate cruise clients are increasingly asking him for guided vacations because of their inherent value. He also noted that current low cruise fares are providing him with repeat business — on tours. Customers who previously booked a single cruise vacation during the year are taking advantage of low cruise prices to book a second annual vacation that is often a guided tour. “It’s a fantastic opportunity,” he said.

Trafalgar Tours in particular has made strong efforts to help agents position and sell guided tours to their past cruise clients, Fortier said.

Trafalgar president Paul Wiseman acknowledged that more agents are selling the company’s product to past cruise clients, “by convincing these clients that a guided vacation is the ideal way to experience destinations in more depth than they may have previously only ‘sampled’ on a cruise.” Agents who sell the company’s guided vacations are also earning commission revenue that “far surpasses what they are earning selling cruises,” Wiseman said.

Cross-Marketing Pays Off
One of the retail industry’s most prolific cruise sellers, Avoya Travel / America’s Vacation Center three years ago began cross-marketing escorted vacations to its past cruise customers. “We have had tremendous success,” said Scott Koepf, AVC vice president of sales.

Koepf said it’s a natural transition for agents to offer guided vacations to past cruise clients because of the inclusive nature of both products, especially for travel sellers who are now leisure travel specialists for whom the customer, not the product, is of primary importance.

A veteran travel retailer, Koepf said that including guided vacations in the mix also gives travel sellers the opportunity to develop ongoing relationships with customers who do not buy, nor want, cruises for all their vacations.

Koepf advised fellow travel sellers to break the habit of leading with products. “Talk to your clients first to find out what they have done and what they are looking for,” he said, pointing to industry research that found 60% of clients change their initial vacation choice after they have talked with a travel counselor.

“Once you get to know the customer, you’ll be able to offer them the right product at the right time, whether it is a cruise, guided vacation or resort package,” he said. That doesn’t diminish cruise sales but it will enhance overall revenues.