MIAMI -- Carnival Cruise Lines is getting into the vacation club
business.
Within weeks, Carnival will roll out the Carnival Vacation Club,
which offers its cruisers four different five-year packages of
timeshare-type benefits, including "points" -- the timeshare
industry's currency -- redeemable for cruises on any Carnival ship,
plus certificates for discounts at different timeshare resorts and
a myriad of other discounts and Carnival perks, such as VIP
check-in.
The packages will be sold onboard two of Carnival's newer ships,
the Carnival Conquest and the Carnival Pride. If the purchaser
names a travel agent during the sale, that agent will receive 10%
upfront on the sale. Prices will range from about $3,500 to nearly
$10,000.
Although travel agents can make money from the Carnival Vacation
Club memberships, Carnival CEO Bob Dickinson said agents can't
promote the program themselves because in many states sellers have
to be licensed to promote these kinds of timeshare deals.
Dickinson said the idea evolved from the line's relationships
with companies that allow timeshare owners to swap weeks at one
property for another. These firms have formed partnerships with
most of the major cruise lines to include cruises as an option for
timeshare traders.
Carnival will set the point values, but the Vacation Club will
be marketed and managed through Solutions at Sea, an affiliate of
Phoenix-based International Cruise & Excursions (ICE), one of
the first cruise-swap facilitators and a top cruise reseller for
many of the major lines. In six years, ICE has gone from selling
"zero" cruises to a projected $200 million in cruise business in
2004, said Marcia Rowley, president of Solutions at Sea.
In an example given by Carnival, a seven-day Caribbean cruise
could cost an average of 3,000 points per person. Purchasers get
between 14,000 to 40,000 points to use within
the five-year time frame, which enables them to buy up to six
seven-day cruises in that time.
Terry Thornton, Carnival's vice president of strategic
marketing, said the line wasn't sure how many cruisers it would get
to attend the onboard sales sessions.
"We haven't sold our customers many products in that [price]
range," he said.
Jeff Kivet, owner of Cruise Vacation Center in East Brunswick,
N.J., said Dickinson was smart to "be the first boy on the block"
to offer the program.
Kivet added that with the industry's "rebating, discounting
[and] coupons, an agent will make more money letting their clients
go on a timeshare."
Dickinson agreed the time- share deals would work well for
agents. "They're making 10% on a fat sale, and we did all the
[work]."
Agents make commission when clients redeem the resort
certificates, but not for redemption of points for specific
cruises. However, agents can still sell extras such as pre- and
post-cruise packages, Rowley said.
"Agents need to not see this as a free ticket," she said. "They
still need to maintain that relationship so the client continues to
buy the ancillary products [through them]."
If the program is a success, Rowley said that by the time it's
rolled out on Carnival's other ships, the product will be
"registered differently" and agents will be able to promote club
memberships to their clients.
To contact reporter Rebecca Tobin, send e-mail to [email protected].
Line adds group amenities
MIAMI -- Carnival Cruise Lines is the latest line to enable
agents to customize their group packages by redeeming "points" for
amenity products.
Under Carnival's new program, agents who book a group of eight
cabins or more receive a specified number of "Fun Points" per
voyage, redeemable for amenities such as cocktail receptions and
cabin upgrades.
Agents can also forego the points for reduced rates. The number
of points received per cruise varies depending on the sail date and
length.
Several other cruise lines, like Royal Caribbean, Princess and
Holland America, have similar programs that allow agents to trade
in points for group amenities. -- R.T.