Travel Weekly Blog

Regular contributor Brian Hordon (Silversea UK) kicks off Travel Weekly Cruise Month...

The timing of the Travel Weekly Cruise Month could not be more appropriate.

Passenger Shipping Association stats continue to show excellent passenger percentage growth year on year, the new Association of Cruise Experts (ACE) goes from strength to strength, and cruise lines are putting plenty of energy into maintaining this success. They are all doing an outstanding job.

However, I still detect concern from many agents about whether the cruise market is factored into their company business plan.

Is this down to lack of confidence or product knowledge on the part of frontline staff? Or is agency management failing to create a plan for increasing local cruise business? (As we say in the Silversea Cruises Luxury Cruising Academy, "Your target is to own the cruise market within your area.")

Some of this may seem controversial, and I am happy to apologise if I have touched a nerve. But I am also happy to say that the solution is now available, this month, and in many forms.

Travel Weekly's focus on cruising throughout September, alongside its cruise roadshows throughout the UK, are resources that must not be underestimated. Reading up on the market is always important, but hearing it from an enthusiastic and professional cruiseline salesperson cannot be emphasised enough.

These people are good, so make sure that you leave each cruiseline discussion with all the features and benefits of their company - who buys, how to sell, going to market, training, agency support, ship visits.

All this first hand knowledge will strengthen your plan to "own the cruise market within your area." It will also provide the confidence that is too often lacking.

And that's not all: the new ACE programme and conventions; the online cruising training programmes; the cruise company roadshows throughout the country - it's all there. The amazing thing is that it is just for the travel agent.

Have a great and successful cruise month, and use all this new knowledge to make sure that the rest of 2007 and 2008 onwards delivers your best cruise profits.

Brian Hordon, Director of Training Development, Silversea Cruises (UK)Ltd.