Travel agents have a “real future” and are “critically important” to every operator as the sector emerges from the pandemic, says the boss of the world’s largest cruise firm.
Speaking during a Travel Weekly webcast, Arnold Donald, Carnival Corporation’s chief executive, said effectively there was nobody else who could advise a customer about the different cruise brands on offer.
Donald said: “I absolutely see a real future for agents – there’s no question about that. They’ve always been very important.”
Matching the customer with the right cruise brand was key to building loyalty to the cruise sector, he added.
“We have nine leading cruise line brands,” he said. “They’re very different from each other and they’re very different from the other brands of other companies.
“There’s nobody better to [advise customers] than a trained, travel agent professional who understands the different brands.”
He admitted there was a risk that if an agent failed to put a customer on the right ship and they had a “bad experience” then that would have a negative effect on future bookings.
But he added: “If [the customer] has a great experience, they will tell everybody about it. That is the most powerful marketing tool there is.
“You have to get [customers] on the right experience that’s going to fit what they’re looking for.”
Donald went on to say how the trade had a “huge” role to play in ensuring a cruise line’s business “sustainability”
“They’re critically important,” he said. The “added layer of uncertainty” which now exists due to the pandemic meant the value of a travel agent at the “top of their game” had increased.
“Stuff is constantly changing,” he added. “[Agents] are going to be up to speed, they’re going to be informing their client ‘here’s what you need, here’s what it’s going to take’.”
Asked by Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley whether Carnival Corp planned to change the way it worked with agents in the wake of flexible working environments, Donald said: “We have to try to make it frictionless for the distribution channel that we work with. And vice versa.”
He added technology helps facilitate a better working relationship between the trade and cruise lines.
Donald pointed out how P&O Cruises and Cunard’s agent programme called Shine Rewards Club had helped “strengthen” the trade’s relationship with the Carnival brands.
“We’ll constantly be adjusting [the programme],” he said, adding how rewards, education, tools and training all helped agents boost their knowledge about a specific brand and, in turn, inform customers about different cruise experiences.
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