Tag Archives: MSC

MSC Cruises to increase shore excursion commission

Posted on by
Reply

By Hollie-Rae Merrick s
MSC Cruises to increase shore excursion commissionMSC Cruises is increasing commission on shore excursions to a minimum of 10% to encourage agents to book tours directly, instead of using third-party suppliers.

The line currently offers 5% commission on excursions, but within the next month – when MSC unveils its new booking platform – the line will begin a six-month pilot to test whether shore excursion booking volumes increase with a rise in commission.

Agents will earn the same amount of commission on cruise bookings and excursions. The base commission rate is 10%, so agents on that rate will earn the same on excursions.

The line made the announcement at an event in London this evening where it also unveiled its new bookings system for agents, MSC Book.

Executive director Giles Hawke (pictured) said agents were booking through third-party companies such as Attraction World and Cruisingexcursions.co.uk because they could earn more. But he argued that increasing commission would give agents the chance to make more money with MSC.

“This is a way of agents earning more money and we want to see if an increased amount makes a difference – if it does, then we will keep it going.”

Hawke said the new commission structure had been the result of agent feedback.

“There are companies who are just selling excursions and the fact we pay some commission recognises the importance of agents. They are proactively selling the products of these cruise excursion companies and if it is because they can earn money, then we’ll give them the opportunity to earn more so they can sell our cruise excursions.”

MSC also announced it was planning to double its UK sales team to 10 by January, as well as having a further team of 20 on the road promoting the line to agents.

The line is working with former Barrhead Travel director Trevor Davis and his marketing and support company 3For, which is creating a 20-strong field team of ‘MSC Ambassadors’ to train agents nationwide three or four times a year.

The new sales team and the increased commission on shore excursion, together with better account management and a consistent message on deals and pricing, are part of MSC’s ‘Serving You’ campaign, which aims to ensure agents can easily access all they need to book.

Hawke said plans were in place to help the line achieve 200,000 passengers from the UK by 2017 when he expects a ship to return to offer ex-UK sailings. He added that if agents show their support earlier there is a chance they a ship could return a year earlier.

Carnival Corp. CEO: Competitors’ newbuilds may hurt pricing

Posted on by
Reply

By Tom Stieghorst
MSC Cruises’ order book of four big new ships is an example of a trend that could spell trouble for an industry struggling to raise prices, Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald said.

“We’ll have to see how it all plays out,” Donald said in a recent teleconference with reporters. “In an ideal world, you wish it wasn’t happening.”

Arnold DonaldDonald was not singling out MSC’s expansion for criticism, but he happened to be making his comments on the day the line ordered two 4,170-passenger ships. That came on the heels of an order for two 4,500-passenger ships, part of a plan to double MSC’s capacity by 2022.

Asked how prices can rise if Carnival Corp. restrains its own brands’ capacity growth while other lines don’t, Donald said he was confident that Carnival’s strategy was sound. It includes incremental growth in onboard revenue and ticket prices spread over 78 million passenger days, coupled with shrinking expenses by employing best practices culled from its 10 brands.

But, he said, if any competitor resorts to “super-aggressive pricing” to fill its ships, “then it can become a problem for the industry.”

Donald said travelers come to view the industry’s lowest prices as a gauge of how much they should pay for any cruise.

“People say, ‘I’m not going to go on that ship, but cruises only cost this much, and I don’t want to pay more than that because I don’t want to get ripped off.'”

On the other hand, he said, the upside of new capacity is more attention being paid to cruise products.

“It just allows them the opportunity to put cruise front and center, to help all of us close on [those] new to cruise,” he said.

MSC Cruises USA President Rick Sasso said that the real pricing stress this year has been in the Caribbean and that MSC wasn’t the initiator of the fare discounting there.

“It should not be a surprise to anybody that we’ve been successful and we’re going to continue to invest in our brand,” he said.

MSC pays 5% commission on prepaid cruise activities

Posted on by
Reply

By Tom Stieghorst
MSC Divina 410MSC Cruises said it will pay 5% commission on cruise activities that cost extra, if they are prepaid and booked through a travel agent.

The line said commissionable activities include spa treatments, specialty restaurants, beverage packages and celebration packages. MSC said they are in addition to the current commissionable shore excursions, hotel packages, transfers and air. Details are at msccruiseagent.com.

Few if any other cruise lines pay commission on such items.

MSC also said it will pay 25% commission on balcony cabins on MSC Divina later this year on sailings between Aug. 2 and Dec. 20. The travel must be booked May 27 through July 31 and apply to categories B1, B2 and B3.

Also, starting June 2, agents can earn tour conductor credits for selling a certain number of FIT bookings. The credits are typically earned when booking groups, but MSC said agents to not need to block group inventory.

One tour conductor credit will be awarded for every 20 full-fare guests on the same sail date, for bookings made up to 75 days prior to departure.