Luxury Cruise Companies Working with Travel Agents to Expand Market
The luxury cruise market is growing. Industry insiders at Cruise Industry News predict that when the numbers are crunched for 2023, there will be slightly north of a million guests having taken to the high seas this year – a big jump on 2019's total of 600,000.
The pandemic hit the cruise lines hard; major operators counted losses in the billions, ports shuttered operations, and passenger numbers were down by upwards of 40% in 2020. Now, the industry is making up for lost time and revenue; one of the prime factors in the recovery is customers working with agents to secure bookings. Trade body Cruise Lines International Association has revealed that 72% of travellers on mainstream cruises use an agent to make their reservations. That number rises to a whopping 93% on luxury voyages, which are priced at £400 per day or more.
The reasons for this shift are many. From the holidaymaker's point of view, cruising can come with a seemingly endless array of package options. It's not just facets like which excursions you wish to go on, which food and drink package and whether you wish staff tips to be paid upfront to be decided on – it's things like knowing which are the most appropriately located cabins on specific ships, something a seasoned professional, such as an agent, can help guide you through.
On a cruise, you'll have different holidaymakers looking for different sorts of experiences, all sharing the same venue. Having your bed in close proximity to the onboard nightclub may be a fantastic perk for twentysomethings, but much less so for families with young children. From an industry point of view, having an expert navigate a first-time cruiser through their needs, wants and dealbreakers with open questioning could be liable to yield a happier holidaymaker than an online direct booking. It's working; a CLIA survey last year revealed that 73% of the Generation X and millennial demographic would consider a cruise holiday, and of the 4,500 respondents who took their first cruise, 88% of millennials and 86% of Gen X said they had plans for subsequent seabound sojourns.
To that end, more and more cruise lines are reaching out and working with agents directly. Silversea Cruises has launched an Academy, providing training programmes to agents on how to best facilitate the needs of their luxury clients. While this can be commonplace in other industries where parent company ambassadors will help train outside staff, the emphasis that cruising is now putting on having agents sell their packages is striking. Summer 2024 will see the new Italian-built ship Explora II join the Explora Journeys fleet. In an industry-first, she'll have 23 onboard residences alongside 438 cabins. They've had such a successful 2023 that Travel Weekly reports the company is advising agents to start focusing on next year before this winter season even sets sail in earnest. Another provider, Carnival, has a package for their agents that cuts straight to the chase and makes the motivation to agents crystal clear - it's titled 'Loyalty Rocks: Learn and Earn'. All these examples underline the importance of agents within the luxury cruise industry.
That earning is a big kicker for agents. While hotel commissions of 10-15% mount up, and it can be worth using a third party like CTS Systems to chase that revenue, the 10% baseline commission that cruise lines will pay represents a big chunk of change at one go when some luxury cruises are north of $5000 (£4011). The cruise liners are motivated by having agents provide a high-end service to high-end clients - the aim is to act as a luxury concierge service before you've even checked in. The agents are motivated because it's very worth their time to ensure that their travellers' needs are taken care of - made even more prescient by the high repeat booking rate in cruising.
The luxury cruise market is forecasted to hit one and a half million passengers by 2030, so expect agents to play a big part in driving that number.
