BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Two cruise lines defended their plans to offer
consumer bookings on the Internet by citing a survey in which 66%
of consumers said they do not use agents when they book vacations.
The survey was conducted by Cruise Lines International
Association, and was the topic of discussion on a cruise panel
during ASTA's South Florida Chapter meeting here. Its findings were
detailed by Debbie Natansohn, executive vice president of Orient
Line and head of CLIA's marketing committee.
The survey resulted from phone interviews of 300,000 people who
called CLIA's toll-free number to request a Cruise Vacation
Planner, a spokeswoman for the association said, adding that the
survey is ongoing at the toll-free number.
The survey's findings were cited as significant by executives
for Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International, both
of which have disclosed plans to offer Internet bookings to
consumers.
Defending Carnival's preparations for an Internet booking engine
for consumers, president Bob Dickinson said, "We're not trying to
steal business from agents. We're trying to access that 65% to 75%
of the people who don't use an agent and let them buy the
product."
Adam Goldstein, senior vice president of marketing for Royal
Caribbean, said, "Probably the most meaningful statistics that we
discussed today is the fact that the cruise industry has about a 2%
share of the vacation market and that travel agents have about a
35% share of all the purchases of vacation travel."
The 35% share was referred to in the CLIA survey and is somewhat
greater than a widely circulated figure by California marketing
consultant Stanley Plog. According to his company, Plog Inc., the
travel-agency share of vacation bookings is 25%.
Callers participating in the CLIA survey also listed the
destinations they plan to visit in the next three years. The
highest preference was for the Bahamas and the Caribbean, followed
by Hawaii and the South Pacific, the CLIA spokeswoman said. In
third place, Europe tied with the Panama Canal and Mexico.
Following were Alaska and a collection of U.S cities.
In a key finding, 42% of the callers said they have taken a
cruise, but Bob Sharak, CLIA's director of marketing and product
development, said many of the respondents might have included day
cruises in their replies. To clarify the matter, CLIA recently
changed the question to specify "cruises of three days or
more."
Sharak said that CLIA is making available to retailers the names
of those callers who request the Cruise Vacation Planner but say
they do not have an agent. The listing of potential client names
are sorted by ZIP code, he said, and are available to all
CLIA-affiliated agents at a charge of 8 cents per name plus a $29
processing charge. Agents can request any number of names. For
information, agents can call CLIA at (800) 372-2542 and ask for a
lead referral request form.