Tag Archives: cruise planners

18 Viking ships named this week

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By Rebecca Tobin

Viking Longships christeningONBOARD THE VIKING HEIMDAL — Viking River Cruises is christening 18 ships in four days — and 18 ships means 18 godmothers, including seven representing the travel industry.

Nine ships were named Monday in Amsterdam, and seven were christened on Tuesday: three in Avignon and four in Rostock, Germany.

“I think it’s quite a week for some of us,” Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen said at the start of the ceremony in Avignon, where he was flanked onstage on the top deck of the Heimdal by seven godmothers and the captains of their ships.

A giant screen behind them displayed video of the four ships in Germany, and as the godmothers blessed their vessels by pressing red buttons on either side of the stage, mechanical arms holding bottles of Veuve Cliquot swung down and smashed them against each ship (windy conditions at the yard in Germany caused a little trouble with two of the bottles, but the bottles broke without incident under sunny skies in Avignon).

In the audience on the Heimdal were godmothers for seven of the nine Viking ships named in Amsterdam: Vicky Garcia, COO of Cruise Planners; Sarah Henshall, vice president of travel and branch operations for AAA Carolinas; Kathryn Mazza-Burney, executive vice president of Travelsavers; Geraldine Ree, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Expedia CruiseShipCenters; Anne Morgan Scully, president of McCabe World Travel; Pam Young, vice president of industry relations for Travel Leaders Franchise Group; and Hanh Haley, the partner of Travel Leaders Group Chairman Michael Batt.

Viking namingTwo ships, the Viking Hemming and the Viking Torgil, will be christened in Portugal on Friday.

The total includes 14 of Viking’s 190-passenger Longships delivered this year. Two delivered last year are being christened this week, as well. The two ships sailing in Portugal are 106-passenger vessels built to operate on the Duoro River.

The ship introductions means that Viking will operate 52 vessels in 2014.

Optimism in the cruise market

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Optimism in the cruise market

By Tom Stieghorst

*InsightIs the cruise business in the process of turning a corner?

 

There’s no objective proof that it is, but as with improvements in the general economy, turning points are often discernable only in retrospect.

 

Subjectively, it feels like something is happening. Business feels like it is getting better. People feel primed to spend again, and travel is one of the areas they want to spend more money on.

 

Some travel executives have been saying this for awhile. “I do feel like travel is back,” said Michelle Fee, CEO of Cruise Planners, who noted her company is having a record year for both franchise and travel sales.*TomStieghorst

 

The legs for a turnaround are in place.  The stock market is consistently hitting new highs. Equally important, home prices have been resurgent for some time now. Unemployment remains a drag, but the jobless rate is several points below its peak of a couple years ago. Driven by a potential easing of tensions with Iran, oil prices have fallen for the past four months, which should give cruise lines leeway to offer better fares without destroying the bottom line.

 

The prevalence of fare sales and promotions suggest that the bedrock seven-night domestic cruise market is still in recovery. But cruise lines continue to make impressive gains in cost reduction, leaving room to fill ships profitably at somewhat lower prices.

 

Individual agents who are having good years are not hard to find. “Personally, my business has been fabulous,” said Muffett Grubb, a Cruise Holidays franchisee in Knoxville, Tenn., who said travelers are loosening their wallets to take cruises in Europe rather than the five-to-seven-day Caribbean trips of 2011-12.

 

Likewise, Rose Stevenson, who owns a Cruise Holidays franchise in Charles Town, W. Va., said she’s doing well and that clients have a comfort level with Alaska and Hawaii cruises they didn’t have before.

 

Kevin Weisner, president of Cruise Holidays, said that in the big picture, success depends on market segment. Once you take the first-time cruiser out of the equation, “business is very, very healthy,” he said.

 

Those consumers that have never been on a cruise became tougher to persuade after the Carnival Triumph incident in February. But memories of that incident are fading, and barring some sort of lightning strike for the third year in a row, the cruise industry could finally be on its way to the smooth sailing it used to enjoy routinely during a good economy.

 

If November turns out to be a tipping point, that’s something everyone in the cruise industry could be thankful for.

Lines roll out incentives for National Cruise Vacation Week

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Lines roll out incentives for National Cruise Vacation Week

By Tom Stieghorst

Travel agents have a flood of special cruise offers to entice customers this week, the third annual National Cruise Vacation Week.

Organized by CLIA, the week generated some $55 million in cruise sales and $7 million in commissions for agents when it was launched two years ago.

This year’s National Cruise Vacation Week may benefit from a marketing tailwind created by Carnival Cruise Lines’ unusual $25 million fall advertising campaign that should raise awareness of cruising generally.

Cruise lines have minted scores of promotions for the week, offering reduced deposits, coupon books for onboard spending, free cabin upgrades and extra-low prices on select sailings.

Agent groups have jumped aboard with additional offers exclusive to their networks.

Cruise Planners, for example, has a $50 onboard credit for select Norwegian Cruise Line sailings, in addition to the cruise line’s more broadly available offers, such as a $250 credit and reduced deposit for summer 2014 cruises.

Many agents offer the specials by putting together a mini-website with the National Cruise Vacation template, which provides space for up to four cruise line promotions.

Or they can organize special events that draw people into their agency or other locations for more personal networking.

Rich Skinner, a Seattle-area Cruise Holidays franchisee, is holding an open house on Oct. 23 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. that will also serve as a wine tasting. Four or five wines will each carry the name of a different cruise line.

“Because we’re sitting out here in the middle of Washington wine country, it makes sense to do that,” Skinner said.

During the business part of the get-together, Skinner will highlight trends for 2014, including river cruise growth, new ocean-going ships and new itineraries. Skinner said he does eight to 10 in-store events a year at his agency, Cruise Holidays of Woodinville.

“That’s one of my most effective marketing tools,” he said.

The fall CLIA event has grown from a single night to a week in the past few years, and some agents and cruise lines extend their specials beyond that. Cruise Planners is taking the whole month of October to promote various specials.

The network expects to take in nearly $20 million in revenue for October, up 69% from two years ago, spokeswoman Caitlin Murphy said.

“We encourage our 800-plus franchise travel advisers to host ‘cruise nights’ or virtual, online events during this campaign, and we support our agents with digital, Web and traditional marketing tools with this year’s ‘Taste of Travel’ theme,” Murphy said.

This year, Cruise Planners is also offering something extra to pull customers into National Cruise Vacation Week. They can enter a drawing to win $1,000 for each cruise they book in October. Murphy said the incentive has no cost to the travel agent.

“Many of our travel advisers appreciate this perk, as the value doesn’t take away from their commissions,” she said.