Travel agents must be held accountable if they attend fam trips and conferences and do not make sales, cruise bosses have warned.
Although Royal Caribbean International is happy to host agents, the line expects to see a return for its investment and will not invite trade partners to any future events if they do not make sales, said vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Ben Bouldin.
“We need to hold agents to account, as we do to ourselves,” he said.
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“When you offer agents hospitality or places at conferences that they then accept for a nominal amount of money or for nothing at all, it’s more than fair to expect to see a return on that investment.
“If we invite agents on board and then they don’t sell anything, we will not be inviting them on board again.
“It’s absolutely fine for agents to come to something like the Clia conference so they can gain more of an understanding of the sector, and to decide that it isn’t for them, but don’t then try to attend the following year.”
Giles Hawke, chief executive of Cosmos and Avalon Waterways UK, echoed Bouldin’s sentiment.
“If you come to a conference for three days and go back to your agency and don’t sell anything then you are wasting everyone’s time, including your own,” he said.
“This is a partnership and a mutual benefit. We are doing this together so let us both benefit off the back of it.
“We are all investing time, energy and money into doing something so let’s make it count afterwards.”
Rob Scott, vice-president of sales, marketing and brand for P&O Cruises, added: “We need to have discussions with agents about reciprocal value.
“Fam trips, educationals and conferences need to lead to something of value for us all.”
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