A new trade body promoting expedition cruising aims to organise ship visits and fam trips for trade professionals to help them experience what the sector has to offer.
The Expedition Cruise Network (ECN) plans follow its launch of webinars for trade professionals to offer sales tips and help them understand the range of vessels and itineraries on offer.
About 100 registered for the first webinar, which took place on Thursday (May 18), and six more are scheduled for the rest of 2023.
ECN chairman Martin Johnson said: “Travel agency sales are the most important avenue for expedition cruise lines.
“One member has 80% of sales coming from agents.
“Cruise operators really want to work with the trade to develop their sales.”
Launched in April, the organisation now has 330 trade professionals signed up to the trade membership portal and 16 cruise operator members.
Johnson said matching the right type of client to the right cruise line and ship is key, so knowledge and training are important.
Commenting on ship visits and fam trips, he said: “There will definitely be opportunities to experience the product.”
He said fam trips can sometimes be tricky as expedition voyages can be longer than in mainstream cruising, but ship visits are a useful alternative for agents to get on board.
“I joined Seabourn Venture on a visit last week; it was a great opportunity to see how it works and meet the team on board,” he added.
“The opportunity for anybody who has not looked at this sector before is huge,” he said.
The starting prices are about £5,000 per person and the average booking value is about £11,000 per person, he said.
“Hopefully the travel trade can see it is very lucrative area of the market,” he added.
About half of the trade professionals – including agents and tour operator staff – who have joined are new to the sector while the rest have some experience.
Johnson hopes to reach 500 trade members soon then eventually 1,000.
Another focus for the network is highlighting the cruise lines’ sustainability credentials.
“Citizen science and education programmes highlight these issues and so passengers become advocates and influencers for change; they have a positive impact,” Johnson added.
More: Expedition Cruise Network plans series of webinars
Expedition cruising is best way to sell to new-to-cruise market, Silversea president tells agents