Learning
As more of their clients consider a cruise, agents who don't train in this sector will miss out on their slice of this booming and lucrative market, writes Jane Archer
CURVES
W
hile the financial crisis continues to take its toll on other sectors of the
travel industry, the cruise market is storming ahead. Some 1.62 million Britons took a cruise in 2010, according to the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA), up six per cent on 2009, and they forecast the figure will rise to two million in 2014. The even better news for agents is
that the vast majority of those passengers will book through the trade as they want expert advice on choosing the right cruise before handing over their money. Which is where good cruise training comes in. As every cruise line will tell you, if you sell a first-timer the wrong cruise ship they will never be back, but get them on the right ship and you have a client for life. Agents have to understand the
26 Autumn 2011 •
www.sellinglonghaul.com
difference between resort-style ships and luxury vessels, and know all about the various itineraries available, from mini-cruises to world voyages. They also have to be able to fend off the misconceptions many people still have about cruising, namely that it’s boring, for old people and expensive. To ensure agents are properly trained, cruise lines and river cruise companies invest heavily in online training programmes that explain the product and offer tips to help agents close a sale. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line training manager UK and Ireland, Michelle Russell, said they really do work. “Agents who complete our Cruising for Excellence online training deliver a 35 per cent increase in sales.” RCCL is the biggest spender when it comes to agents’ training, but Norwegian Cruise Line and Complete
Cruise Solution, the sales arm of P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Cunard, also invest a lot, and many individual cruise lines have also developed training programmes (see below). In addition, the Association of Cruise
Experts, the agents’ arm of the PSA, has its own comprehensive training, available through the ACE Academy, comprising 14 destination training modules and six Know How courses that help agents organise and promote cruise events and generally run their business more effectively. The academy, at
www.cruiseexperts.
org, also has modules on luxury, specialist, and river and niche cruising, and hosts online training programmes for cruise lines including Hurtigruten, Holland America Line, Silversea, eWaterways and Oceania Cruises. Off-line, ACE organises ship visits, Learning at Sea events that mix
training with a mini-cruise, and the UK Cruise Convention, where agents have an opportunity to visit ships, get sales tips from experts and understand more about the industry from top- level speakers. Agents earn points for the on- and off-line training that takes them to Expert, Ambassador and – new for 2011– Masters level, for those who achieve 2,000 points. In all, ACE has trained 22,000 agents over the past year.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line RCCL’s Cruising for Excellence training programme was ground- breaking when it launched in 2006, starting the trend for e-learning that others have followed. To celebrate its fifth birthday this year, the programme was totally redesigned, using the latest technology to create a 3D
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36