A couple dozen host agencies in the U.S. are opening up this year as part of an expansion in the U.S. by Vancouver-based Expedia CruiseShipCenters.
The company has been in growth mode since Expedia Inc. acquired a majority-ownership share four years ago. Today, it has a total of 160 franchise locations, 20 of them in the U.S. About 24 more are expected to open in the U.S. by the end of the year, said Fred Mercer, director of franchise development.
“We’ve been at this a long time as a franchise company with a difference, and that difference is that our franchisees largely are host agencies for home-based agents,” he said. Many of the new franchises in the U.S. are being opened by second-career entrepreneurs who are new to the travel industry and looking to build a team of experienced home-based agents, he said.
One of the most recent companies to join is through an acquisition by an Expedia CruiseShipCenters franchise. Florida-based Coral Sands Travel was acquired by Expedia CruiseShipCenters OVC in Plantation, Fla. Coral Sands, owned by industry veteran Peter Stilphen, joined OVC in Plantation and brought 400 home-based agents to the Expedia franchise.
Expedia CruiseShipCenters franchises offer home-based agents a program called Customers for Life that features promotions and marketing that’s personalized, Mercer said. “It drives one-on-one relationships and allows agents to concentrate on building relationships rather than administrative tasks.”
The program includes regular customer mailings and newsletters. Recently, the company expanded its sales tools to consumer travel videos, releasing a river cruise video available to agents through Customers for Life. The program notifies agents when their customers view the video so that they can then contact the customer and provide more river cruise information.
Expedia CruiseShipCenters is a division of Expedia Inc., whose 20 travel brands include Hotwire, Classic Vacations and Expedia.com. Each is operated separately, Mercer said, and CruiseShipCenters is the only retail agency company in the group.
CruiseShipCenters derives about 65% of its sales from cruise sales, another 20% from land vacations and the rest from hotel and air bookings.
“We really haven’t used the leverage of Expedia Inc.,” he said. “Expedia Inc. really treats us as fully independent operating units, and we have our own contracts with cruise lines.”