Travel Weekly’s ten ‘agent reporters’ will be giving us their perspective on the Travel Convention 2010 throughout the event
The Cruise Forum panel on Innovation v Traditional Service was made up of Nigel Lingard from Fred Olsen, Giles Hawke from Carnival UK and Tom Britton and Jason Peters, who are both agents.
The first issued debated was the use of eticketing even for high value clients. Hawke explained that by stopping sending out tickets and wallets Carnival had saved three million pounds this year, and this was better spent on enhancing onboard service and putting more money into their online offering for agents and clients.
The feeling in the room seemed to be that whilst most agents were happy with this approach on low value bookings it was not what high spending clients expected.
The response to this was that a decent commission was paid and that if agents wanted to add value to their product then they should produce wallets themselves and have their name on them.
This did not seem to appease most agents, who felt that Carnival had saved their printing bill by passing it on to the agent. Lingard commented that he had a foot in both camps as he said he would like to see some changes but did not feel that his mainly older and loyal clients were ready for the change.
An interesting addition to the debate was a genuine email read out by an agent panelist. The gist of it was how delighted the client was to receive tickets from Silversea in a beautiful box and a genuine leather wallet, and how they were sure that a company who gave out such a beautiful product before the voyage would be sure to exceed their expectations on board.
Whilst a lot of clients may not mind etickets the high spending clients do expect, and deserve, better than a piece of paper and a ‘Blue Peter’ luggage label.
The session finished with a discussion on e-marketing. There was a difference in the strategies used by Fred Olsen and Carnival, but both agreed that social media was a big part of the mix.
Carnival was advanced in its use of Facebook and Twitter, with 60,000 followers on Facebook, whilst Fred Olsen admitted to playing catch-up and said that it would be focusing on e-marketing this year having seen a sharp rise in the number of customers researching online.
- Agent Reporters are sponsored by Belleair Holidays, Air Malta, Malta Tourism Authority and Abta
