It's
been four months since Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. terminated its
contract with Joystar, a host agency counting about 5,000
independent contractor affiliates. In that time period, the agency
"has made many positive changes that make us very attractive to all
our suppliers," said Joystar President Larry Fishkin.
Fishkin was reluctant
to address the RCCL breach directly but did say that Joystar had
hopes of rejoining the RCCL fold.
He enumerated the
"positive changes" in three categories: more intensive
communication and education for the network, the expected launch of
a business-to-consumer Web site for which some network affiliates
are being trained to provide fulfillment services and training for
other affiliates to assist with the national marketing of themed
group cruises.
These steps "are
yielding very positive results for suppliers," he said.
In October, RCCL
severed its ties with three companies, calling them "card mill"
agent-recruiting businesses. It declined to name the three, but
Joystar and YTB International acknowledged being on the
list.
Fishkin, noting that
Joystar neither issues cards nor charges an up-front fee to be an
affiliate, said RCCL's action was based on "some misunderstanding."
He said more than 5,000 individuals had signed on as affiliates but
that a smaller number are active. "The active agents have strong
credentials," he said.
Fishkin said Joystar
"embraces the preferred-supplier concept" and that other suppliers
have filled the void left by RCCL.
To
contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine
Godwin at [email protected].