Tom Stieghorst
Cruise lines still need travel agents.
That’s the conclusion preached in the past two weeks by one of the industry’s top executives and one of its top agency group owners.
Royal Caribbean International president Adam Goldstein went out of his way on a conference call with Wall Street analysts to underscore his gratitude for the “steadfast” support of travel agents.
Bookings that come direct to Royal Caribbean account for “the high teens to 20%” of sales, Goldstein said. While higher than in past years, that isn’t close to a majority.
“Therefore, travel agents are playing a vital role in our success, in our growth and in our ability to reach consumers around the world," Goldstein said.
He emphasized that the Internet isn’t a preferred booking tool for many customers, but it has changed the way people shop for a cruise.
“The much more important role of the Internet in our world is for information, both for travel agents and consumers, which actually improves the travel agent consumer discussion,” he said.
Also weighing in on the continued relevance of agents was Brad Tolkin, co-owner of World Travel Holdings.
In an interview at the CruiseOne/Cruises Inc. annual conference in Orlando, Tolkin said cruise lines should be taken more or less at their word when they say they love travel agents.
Despite some high profile exceptions, cruise lines in general have not raised noncommissionable fares, or NCFs, according to an internal study World Travel Holdings did about a month ago, Tolkin said. But when fares fall, NCFs don’t, so they eat up a bigger part of agent income.
“So it does have a negative impact on how much a travel agent makes," he said. "You feel it more in a year like 2012 when the price is dropping. “
Tolkin said it would cost the cruise lines more in the end to eliminate travel agents, especially when an accident like Costa Concordia occurs.
“Those same Wall Street analysts who ask [cruise lines] 'why don’t you cut commissions,' they would be asking: 'how are you going to cut costs?' The answer will be: we can’t. The phones are ringing. We have to service the customer.
“So the travel agent distribution system is a very efficient distribution system," Tolkin said. "I don’t believe the cruise line executives are going to turn off such an effective, professional and far-reaching distribution system."