FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- When it comes to selling cruises, the word
"niche" may suggest "small ships" to most travel agents, according
to MSC Italian Cruises' Steve Hirshan, but it could just as well
mean "specialty" -- which covers a wide range of marketing
opportunities.
Hirshan, MSC's vice president of sales and marketing, will be
one of the panelists at the Adventure Tour and Niche Cruising
seminar at CruiseTour World, the combined educational program and
trade show designed to help travel agents sell tours and cruises,
sponsored, in part, by Travel Weekly.
The show will be held April 24 to 27 at the Broward Country
Convention Center.
According to Hirshan, one of the messages he hopes to get across
during the seminar is that many travel agents don't understand that
a niche cruise operator's product "is not solely limited to the
size of the ship."
"Seminars like this are very important from both the supplier
side and the agency side," he said.
"For everything we can put in print and everything we can do
online, the ability to interact with our peers in the industry is
hard to replace," Hirshan said. "It's important for both sides to
have that give and take, the ability to talk one-on-one."
CruiseTour World is sponsored by Travel Weekly, the Cruise Lines
International Association, the U.S. Tour Operators Association and
the Institute of Certified Travel Agents.
Co-sponsors include Giants, ModernAgent.com, the Outside Sales
Support Network, Travelsavers and Brendan Worldwide Vacations.
For additional information, visit the show's Web site at www.cruisetourworld.com.