Agents must get better at differentiating between cruise products on their websites to help their customers understand which line would be the best fit for them, according to Clia UK & Ireland chair Ben Bouldin.
Speaking in a Clia webcast interview with Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley, Bouldin challenged the trade to provide clearer information on their websites to highlight the key points of each product and to stop relying solely on price.
He said: “Not enough [agents’ websites] do enough of a job to explain the difference between different cruise lines to help people understand which product they might like to go on”.
His advice came during Clia Cruise Week, the association’s annual celebration of the sector which aims to raise awareness and increase knowledge within the trade.
Bouldin asked: “If you’ve never cruised before, why would you know what the difference is between one big, white ship and another? You wouldn’t. You can speak to a travel advisor on the phone and they’ll help educate you, but people’s first foray into looking at cruise is often to browse some kind of website.
“If you see two cruise ships where one is £1,200 and one is £600 and they are both for seven-night cruises in the Mediterranean, most people will say, ‘I think I’ll take the £600 one’.
“We do not articulate what the difference is between them. That’s the challenge we’ve got to face.”
He added: “I think [agents] rely on price to do the job for them too much.”
Bouldin, who is also Royal Caribbean’s vice-president for the EMEA region, encouraged cruise lines to assist agents in making that change by providing more content.
He said trade enthusiasm to sell cruise had “never been higher”, and now was the time for the sector to pull together to educate customers and sell effectively.
“We need to do a better job in helping the travel trade to reflect the differences of our respective brands on their websites; we’ve got to give the trade more content,” he said.
Bouldin added: “The big challenge for the sector is to really start educating consumers so they can find the right product for themselves.”