Seabourn has hailed the success of a series of agent roadshows and committed to running additional events later in the year.
The luxury cruise line hosted 170 agents at five events in five days in Glasgow, Manchester and London.
Each roadshow included lunch, presentations by director of expedition operations Shaun Powell and senior marketing manager Carly Perkins and a Q&A session.
Lynn Narraway, vice-president of UK and Europe, praised the turnout to the events and confirmed the line would run more roadshows this year due to “overwhelming demand”.
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“It has been important for us to emphasise the value in our expedition sailings to agents and the best way for us to do that is through Shaun, who has such passion and is an expert in his field and really helps show the difference between us and other cruise lines,” Narraway said.
“The feedback we have had has been terrific, with one agent saying it’s the best event she’s been to, which is both humbling and satisfying.
“The roadshows, which we have called ‘rendezvous events’, have been very oversubscribed so we have decided to run more later in the year.
“We will definitely host another in London and we also want to have one in Southampton. We also plan to run some online events as, although connecting over a screen is not the same as meeting in person, it is still a good way to communicate with agents and give them the opportunity to learn and ask questions.”
Narraway went on to emphasise the “critical role” agents play in Seabourn’s business, and encouraged any trade partners looking to break into the luxury sector to “do your homework, learn who the luxury traveller is and become an expert in the field”.
“We are a global brand and there are not many places that we don’t sail to, but we don’t do many ex-UK cruises so it is imperative we do as much training as we can,” she said.
“More than 90% of our sales come through the trade, so agents are really important to the brand.
“Last year, we had more agents sail with us than ever before due to our fam trips and ship visits and we want to continue that momentum.”
What agents had to say
Melanie Mitchell, Travel Counsellors
“It has been an excellent day and really informative. It’s been brilliant to learn about the expedition cruises as I didn’t know anything about that part of Seabourn’s business so that has given me loads of information to go away with. I’ve not had an enquiry for an expedition before but now that I’ve seen the presentation and got more understanding of the product, I will be able to drum up some enquiries through social media and from clients I know would be interested.”
Trevor Smith, Travel Counsellors
“It has been an amazing event. Before I came, I thought expedition cruises only went to cold destinations such as the Arctic and Antarctic, but this has really opened my eyes to the other expedition cruises available. Listening to Shaun and hearing his passion for the product was really inspiring. It is also incredible to hear clients can travel to places that no one has ever been to before and is such a brilliant selling point. Our job as agents is all about giving our clients the opportunities to make memories and have once-in-a-lifetime experiences and that is what Seabourn offers.”
Lily Jones, Inteletravel
“I have a lot of luxury clients and predominantly sell Carnival, MSC and Royal Caribbean cruises, but this has shown me another side of the market. I love cruising and have just come back from my 12th cruise but I’ve never been with Seabourn so I’m keen to try it for myself and to start recommending it to clients. The expedition side of the product is so different to the other cruises I usually do so it’s great to learn more about the sector.”
Kirsty Van Wyk, Travel Village Group
“Today has been very useful, particularly on the expedition side of the business. With an expedition cruise, the ship is obviously important but the itinerary is the key part of selling that holiday so it has been great to learn more about the product and hear from Shaun who is such an expert on the topic. I have sold Seabourn in the past, but this event has really reignited my passion for the brand and made me want to sell more.”