What’s In This Issue:
- From the Bridge–CLIA President and CEO Terry Dale – CLIA is “communicating” to enhance your agency’s efforts.
- Cruising in the News - CLIA MCC’s lend a hand to promote National Tourism Week…Bermuda charts course for a cruise-ship future…New York Stock Exchange ceremonies cap successful projects for Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
- Maximizing Membership Benefits – CLIA certification offers tangible benefits.
- Learn More to Earn More – A seagoing meetings checklist from Norwegian Cruise Line’s Marianne Schmidhofer.
- Member Spotlight – CLIA Agent Q&A with Larry Seigel , ACC, Larry Seigel Travel of Palmdale, Calif.
- We Thought You Should Know – Twenty years is a long time.
June 2004
From The Bridge
Greetings!
One of our goals at CLIA is to provide you with tangible benefits that provide measurable value. We believe that one of the most significant services we can offer to our member agencies is access to CLIA’s decision-makers.Our country’s fourth president, James Madison, once said, “A man has property in his opinions and the free communication of them.” Those are inspiring words indeed, and they accurately reflect our attitude here at CLIA. One of the most important benefits we can provide to our member agencies is the “property” and power of communication in the form of access to the highest levels of CLIA’s leadership.
As a result, in one of the first steps I am taking as CLIA’s new president, we are launching a new initiative to open the lines of communication between CLIA and our agency members. On July 13 CLIA will offer the first in a series of monthly “Direct to Dale” electronic conferences.
Direct to Dale will use the latest in Web conference technology to provide CLIA owners, managers and frontline cruise sellers with the opportunity to speak directly with me as part of an electronic town meeting. Participants will be free to discuss any and all subjects related to cruise training and education, marketing and retailing and CLIA’s initiatives.
Through Direct to Dale, up to 50 CLIA agents will be able to join these scheduled CLIA events, which will be accompanied by an online presentation. Agents will be able to join in by logging onto a pre-arranged Web address and dialing into a toll-free phone number. Participants will have the opportunity to ask and respond to questions via both telephone and the Internet, and even CLIA members who don’t participate in Direct to Dale will have the opportunity to review the entire event, as each session will be available on our Web site soon after its conclusion.
Agents can log onto the “Direct to Dale” Conference beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on July 13, 2004 by calling 800-747-5150 and also logging onto to http://net.globalcrossing.com/conferencing/. The access code for the telephone and Web components is 6601735.
I’m excited to be able to provide you with more services and benefits that have a direct impact on your businesses. Through Direct to Dale and other programs like it, I hope to foster an open line of communication that will allow us to provide the valuable “property” of communication and the services and support you need to reach your agency’s goals.
Bon Voyage!
Terry L. Dale
President & CEO
CLIA
Changes are afoot at the cruise industry’s major homeport, the Port of Miami. A large redevelopment program is underway the South Florida port, which last year processed 3.4 million cruise passengers. The redevelopment will include the construction of two $30 million cruise terminals, set to open in 2005. Each terminal will include 105,000 square feet of air-conditioned space, 20,000 square feet of covered perimeter space for passenger unloading and check-in, an automated baggage handling system, and new provisions screening facilities. There will also be 2,400 new parking spaces.Additionally, the Port of Miami has teamed with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau to update travel agents and tour operators on the redevelopment project. The parties are also combining to market Miami’s regional attractions – from the Miami Children’s Museum and Parrot Jungle to the Miami Seaquarium in nearby Key Biscayne – as part of an ongoing campaign to promote Miami, long among the dominant cruise embarkation ports, as a port of call.
Cruising’s “homeport” movement continues to re-shape the deployment and embarkation map. Among the winners is Seattle, which is quickly gaining ground on Vancouver as the most popular starting point for roundtrip Alaska voyages. Seattle officials expect to host about 500,000 vacationers on nearly 150 sailings this year, a big leap from the 6,000 guests hosted on six sailings in 1999.
Seattle became one of the first homeport cities in 2000, when Norwegian Cruise Line deployed Norwegian Sky in the Emerald City for a series of seven-day Alaska voyages. While Vancouver still leads all North American ports in Alaska-bound passengers (city officials expect 900,000 guests on 290 voyages this year), both the number of passengers and the number of itineraries sailing from the city have declined five percent since 2003, the first such decline in 21 years, according to the Vancouver Sun.
CLIA agents are on board for National Tourism Week promotion – CLIA experts stood front and center during the recent National Tourism Week promotion, held from May 8 to16. Organized by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) and first observed in 1984, National Tourism Week celebrates the $522 billion travel industry’s far-reaching economic, social and cultural impact.
The centerpiece of National Tourism Week is “Tourism Works for America,” a nationwide broadcast media campaign designed to educate consumers, legislators and travel industry professionals on travel and tourism’s substantial economic impact on their own communities. CLIA also contributed to the National Tourism Week effort by conducting a media tour to promote cruise vacations and of course, the travel agents who make these dream vacations come true.
This year, six CLIA Master Cruise Counsellors (MCCs) – Robin & Susan Schneider of Twin Horizons Travel in Dublin, Ohio; Arlene Goldberg of Action Travel Center in Solon, Ohio; Marjorie Perry of Raindancer Travel Services in Tucson, Ariz.; Doug Risser of Menno Travel Service in Goshen, Ind. and Corinne Waterbury of Zenith Travel in Seattle - appeared on radio and television programs in regional markets across the United States and Canada as part of the promotion.
“National Tourism Week is the perfect vehicle for delivering the message that travel and tourism is vital to the U.S. economy,” said William Norman, TIA’s president and CEO. “Community celebrations of National Tourism Week have helped more citizens and government officials understand the tremendous economic, social and cultural impact derived from travel and tourism.”
“National Tourism Week is a great opportunity to promote the travel industry’s importance and value to America,” said Bob Sharak, CLIA’s executive president and chief marketing officer. “National Tourism Week also represented another opportunity to promote what we believe to be travel’s two best vacation values – cruises and the CLIA member agent. We are proud to have CLIA agents serve as spokespersons for cruising and travel and look forward to working with more CLIA travel agent spokespersons in the future.”
Bermuda legislators plan for a cruise future – Bermuda’s transport minister recently said the government is drafting a “master plan” to help the island nation accommodate the newest generation of cruise ships. Bermuda has long maintained tight controls on the size and passenger capacities of the cruise ships that call at the sunny archipelago. But the trend toward larger, more feature-filled ships has left the Bermuda fleet well behind the curve, said Dr. Ewart Brown in a May article in the Bermuda Royal Gazette.
In an address to government officials following talks with CLIA operators including Carnival Corp., Norwegian Cruise Line, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises and Royal Caribbean Intl., Dr. Ewart Brown described the ships that now visit Bermuda as “among the oldest and smallest in the North American fleet.”
Moreover, Brown said that the executives told him almost all of the Bermuda ships will be replaced within four years, and the cruise lines “will not replace [those ships] with ships small enough to negotiate Bermuda’s channels and use its docks.”
Said Brown, “Unless we modify our channel approaches and port facilities, there will not be sufficient cruise ships to sail to Bermuda once the current ships are sold or retired.”
Bermuda’s master plan will outline infrastructure improvements at the Hamilton, Dockyard and St. George’s piers to “ensure [the improvements] don’t clash with other development initiatives,” said Brown, and several lines have indicated they would be willing to partner with Bermuda to upgrade the port facilities, he added.
Next summer, Royal Caribbean Intl. will dock Voyager of the Seas and Grandeur of the Seas at the Dockyard. The facility has also accommodated other large ships. Carnival Cruise Line offered 11 calls aboard to two of its 2,124-passengers ships in 2003.
“This Government is committed to developing a master plan for port infrastructure that will ensure the presentation of the uniqueness of Bermuda as a destination but will also serve as a law to cruise lines willing to offer the Bermuda experience to their passengers,” Brown said. “In our meetings with our cruise partners, Bermuda has ranked very high on their list of preferred ports. They want to make it so they can continue to bring their ships here.”
CRUISE INDUSTRY SAILS TO WALL STREET
Top officials from the cruise industry’s largest lines both celebrated recent successes by presiding over the New York Stock Exchange’s closing bell ceremony. Carnival Corp. capped off a big week in April as company officers, accompanied by Captain Paul Wright, master of Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2, rang the closing bell. Earlier that day, The QM2 steamed up the Hudson River to dock at the New York Cruise Terminal for the first time. One month later, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. executives celebrated the successful opening of the Cape Liberty cruise port in Bayonne, N.J. by joining with top retailers to preside ring out the NYSE session.
Pictured from left to right are Dave Lucas, Cruise 411; Ann Marie Moebes, Travelsavers; Ken Lorey, Travelocity; Noreen Culhane, NYSE Executive Vice President of Corporate Listings and Compliance; John Nordquist, South Beach Cruises;Richard Fain Royal Caribbean’s Chairman and CEO; Jack Mannix, GIANTS; Audry Hendley, American Express; Charlene Failla, Cruise Holiday; Bill Sivillo, Captains Club Cruises and Tours and Cathy Palaez, Liberty Travel.
In Memoriam: Respected cruise industry figure Fred Mayer, 69 died May 7 due to heart failure following a successful liver transplant, according to industry Web site CruiseCommunity.com.
Mayer was a key cruise figure from the 1960s to the mid 1990s. From 1969 to 1995, he was president of New York-based cruise and tour wholesaler Exprinter. Mayer was also a co-founder of destination cruise pioneer Regency Cruises in 1984 and was later named vice chairman and CEO of Commodore Holdings Ltd., which owned Commodore Cruise Lines and Crown Cruise Line.
Mayer was also a theme cruise pioneer who expressed his love for classical music by arranging prestigious celebrity voyages with classical music impresario Sol Hurok. In 1972, Mayer organized a “Sol Hurok Presents” cruise aboard Rotterdam featuring Gina Bachauer, Andre Watts, Jerome Hines and Jose Ferrer. He followed up in 1974 with a Bermuda and Bahamas cruise featuring Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie.
Mayer was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He grew up in Turkey and studied in London and Paris, using his lingual skills to find work in travel communications. In 1963, he came to New York for the first time aboard the historic trans-Atlantic liner United States.
Mayer was best known in recent times for rescuing the out-of-service United States from the ship breakers. Mayer’s investment group, Marmara Marine, acquired the once-proud liner at auction for $2.6 million in the mid 1990s. Mayer planned to convert the ship for cruising and even had it towed it to Turkey and then the Ukraine for refurbishing. However, the project never materialized and the United States wound up in a Philadelphia shipyard. Last year, Norwegian Cruise Line purchased the ship.
Mayer is survived by his wife Elizabeth.
Every successful agency finds a few innovative ways to drive profitability. While some strategies are long-term initiatives relying on consistency and the ebb of time, there are other steps agents can take immediately to drive their cruise-selling efficiency.CLIA’s Cruise Counsellor Certification program is among the most effective ways for cruise-selling agents to quickly and measurably enhance their product knowledge and sales efficiency. CLIA member agents who have attained CLIA’s Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC) and Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC) designations report an average 235% productivity increase. In 2004, CLIA introduced its newest (and highest) certification designation, Elite Cruise Counsellor (ECC).
Only travel agents employed by CLIA-member agencies can achieve ACC, MCC or ECC designation. Agents can earn ACC, MCC or ECC certification credits by attending and reviewing a combination of some or all of the following CLIA-sanctioned programs and activities:
- Training seminars, including videos and Internet presentations
- Ship inspections
- Past cruise experience
- Attendance at CLIA co-sponsored and –endorsed conferences
- Completion of CLIA’s textbook
- Case Studies
- Cruise sales
- Attendance at member-line product seminars
- Completion of The Travel Institute’s CTA, CTC or CITC designations
- Completion of CITC, CTC or CTM designations
- Seminar in print series
- Attendance at CLIA Institute
CLIA Certification provides cruise sellers with a level of knowledge and professionalism that cannot be attained elsewhere. CLIA also promotes ACC, MCC and ECC certification in all of its public relations and promotional campaigns. Nearly 90% of CLIA agencies say consumers feel more confident working with a CLIA Cruise Counsellor. Both you and your clients will benefit from your ACC and/or MCC designation.
For more information on Cruise Counsellor Certification, log onto CLIA’s Web site at www.cruising.org.
Speaking of certification, in May, Allan Shapiro became the first North American travel agent to attain CLIA’s Elite Cruise Counsellor (ECC) designation. Allan is the owner of The Cruise Authority in Marietta, Ga. and will be profiled in an upcoming issue of CLIA’s E-Newsletter.
ECC designation represents the ultimate level of CLIA certification achievable. To qualify, agents must have attained MCC designation; completed any of 10 live or online seminars and exams; five ship inspections; a seven-day cruise and have sold 50 cabins in a 12-month period. Agents have two years from the date of enrollment to meet the ECC requirements.
Checklist for Organizing Charter and Incentive Cruisesby Marianne Schmidhofer, Director, Charter, Meeting and Incentive Sales, Norwegian Cruise Line
The Meetings & Incentives category is emerging as one of cruise retailing’s fastest-growing segments. The growth in seagoing meetings has come as more planners recognize the inherent benefits of shipboard gatherings. Also, over the last several years, the CLIA member lines have launched a new generation of ships that feature diverse services and amenities to accommodate groups of all sizes.
There are several advantages to holding meetings and group activities aboard cruise ships. Among the most significant benefits is that for most people, a cruise voyage represents an exciting new travel experience. CLIA statistics indicate that as few as 15% of vacationers have ever taken a cruise, meaning that most participants in your group cruise will not only be motivated by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but will bond through sharing a new experience.
Organizing a shipboard meeting or incentive gathering requires careful planning. A simple checklist of the basic elements needed to launch a successful charter or incentive cruise is a good first step. For example, agents must determine:
Does your selection of destination appeal to the group? Whether you are hosting an incentive group of a gathering based on a common interest or association, it pays to be sure the destination is attractive to the majority of your audience.
Which ship will appeal to your group? There’s a cruise ship for just about every traveler, from large floating resorts featuring broad open decks, non-stop activities and lavish entertainment, to smaller luxury ships featuring the utmost in sybaritic living at sea. It’s important to consider your group’s orientation (age, income and previous travel experience are all important factors) to select the right ship.
Will the length of cruise is right for your group? Cruises are available in lengths of from three or four days to a week or more and can accommodate the needs of most groups.
What dining options are available? Today’s cruise ships offer the utmost in flexibility, with almost every conceivable dining style available. For example, Norwegian Cruise Line’s “Freestyle Dining” program features a collection diverse restaurants and the freedom for guests to dine when, where and with whom they wish while donning casual attire at all times. Other fleets feature additional “resort-style” dining options as well as more traditional shipboard dining including formal nights. Some ships offer specialty eateries including wine cellars where group dining is available, private compartments adjoining larger restaurants, and even fast-food diners. Again, your guests’ preferences should spell out your options.
Does the ship offer dedicated conference facilities? There’s no need to settle for inadequate meeting space or substandard audio/visual facilities when it comes to seagoing gatherings. Today’s ships feature complete conference facilities, from functional meeting rooms including boardrooms, to business centers staffed by conference service managers and equipped with the latest meetings technologies. Again, agents should consider the needs and orientation of their group to select the appropriate ship.
Does the ship offer a variety of stateroom categories? This is particularly important if your gathering is an incentive group where production is key to the equation. Ships with a variety of staterooms – from standard ocean view cabins with balconies to more deluxe mini-suites and suites – can provide the diverse cabin classifications necessary for these groups.
- What is the tax deductibility status? This is an important area as most cruise ships are flagged in foreign countries. Most experts in this area advise that the company sponsoring the cruise can deduct the cost of the award. Also, the recipient must report the fair market value of the voyage as “income” for tax purposes. Conferences and meetings aboard U.S.-flagged ships offer corporate and individual tax deductibility for meeting expenses.
Seagoing meetings provide your clients with an inclusive price, value for the money, diverse and readily available activities, a captive audience and most importantly, attendee satisfaction. Cruise-ship gatherings at sea represent an ideal environment to combine work and pleasure, not to mention an attractive commission opportunity for agents.
Member Spotlight
Larry Seigel, ACC, Larry Seigel
Travel, Palmdale, Calif.
Throughout the year, CLIA’s E-Newsletter will speak with professionals at CLIA member agencies to discuss the challenges in their markets, their strategies for success, and the programs that have helped them sell cruises more effectively. Today’s guest agent is Larry Seigel of Larry Seigel Travel of Palm Springs, Calif.
Q: Isn’t your agency in a bit of a transition?
LS: “Yes. We are moving to a new office near Palm Springs. I like to say we are going from the high desert to the low desert. We did well in Palmdale (where the agency was previously based) but this is a more affluent area.”
Q:Why did you decide to relocate?
LB: “Palmdale was experiencing rapid growth, but having been in the construction business I received a tip that the homebuilding would peak very soon. We recognized the neighborhood was changing. So I sold the business at a profit and relocated. I don’t expect to keep all of our customers, but that’s OK because this is a more affluent area whose people routinely book 10- and 11-day cruises.”
Q: Was your agency successful in 2003??
LB: “Last year, our business doubled. Although we use computers, I like to handle every thing one-on-one. I don’t want my customers talking to machines. I specialize in groups, particularly senior citizen groups, and they require a lot of personal service. I’m always there to handle everything they need. Because of that, most of my business is repeat. People like what I do. I have two outside agents working for me now and I am looking to double the business again this year. ”
Q: With your emphasis on service are you concerned with competition from larger, Internet-based agencies?
LB: “I tell people that if they want to use the Internet to buy a cruise it’s fine, but if they want personal service, I can help them. I don’t worry about competition. Attitude is 90% of what you do.
“For example, I am a retired general contractor, which was my business before I became an agent. I once experienced a downturn in my building work and had to find something else. So I went to visit some spa dealers to get some information, and then I made more contacts, enough to where I could buy spa-building materials at cost.
“I worked hard and did my homework. After I learned a little more, I began installing spas, which turned into a new business for me. I survived, and it was because I didn’t just sit around watching the grass grow. Success doesn't’t always mean making millions of dollars. Personal accomplishment is much more important.”
Q: You recently attended the CLIA Institute, our organization’s most intensive and comprehensive training program. With your agency already successful, why did you opt to attend the Institute?
LB: “Because I learn at the Institute. I am 70 years old and still learn something new every day, so why wouldn’t I take the opportunity to learn more? I go to the Institute because I can learn things that will help make me successful. I’ve earned my ACC and now I want to go for my MCC.”
Q: What advice do you have for other cruise retailers?
LB: “If you’re going to jump into something, know how deep the water is. I always do my homework. When I started as an agent, I made a point of finding out about all of the non-profit groups and associations in my region to cultivate a target audience. Also, you have to be flexible. I’ve noticed the alternative and gay and lesbian markets are very big in this region, and I have considered looking into those markets.”
We
Thought You Should Know
A lot of change can take place over 20
years. Due to hotel-room shortages and security concerns, LeBron James,
Tim Duncan, Vince Carter and their teammates on the U.S. men’s
basketball team will reside aboard the Queen Mary 2, which will anchor
off the Greek coast, during this summer’s Olympic Games. Twenty
years ago, at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, the U.S. men’s squad
was housed “seven to a room” in a University of Southern
California dormitory, according to Steve Alford, a player on that team.
“And we thought we’d died and gone to heaven,” Alford
recently told Florida Today.