AUSTIN, Texas -- Iconic, land-based hospitality brands that have launched cruise products are selling very well for Global Travel Collection.
In fact, sales to those brands represent 5% of all future cruise bookings, said Ragan Stone, senior vice president of GTC brand In the Know Experiences.
And those cruise products -- which come from brands like the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Aman and Orient Express -- aren't just drawing seasoned cruisers. They are pulling first-time cruisers already familiar with their land-based products.
"There's an incredibly strong brand loyalty right here at the guest level and at the advisor level, which means that advisors who were not selling cruise products last year or two years ago are now having these conversations with their clients, which is really exciting," Stone said. "It's giving them a whole new product to sell."
For GTC, it means an entirely new category of products, according to Stone, who was speaking at a media briefing during GTC's Arrive 2026 conference at the Fairmont here.
It's a lucrative category, too. While the average trip price for an ocean cruise stands around $10,000, the average trip price for a yacht product is $40,000, according to Josh Stevens, senior vice president of strategy and growth at GTC.
Cruise bookings in general remain a particularly strong category for GTC. Cruise is up 20% year over year, led by ocean cruising; river cruising is also on a growth trajectory.
The destinations experiencing a surge in demand
In terms of destinations, Europe is seeing slower growth this summer than expected. The Continent is down around 10%, Stevens said, but fall travel to Europe is up 25%, indicating GTC clients are increasingly choosing to visit during shoulder season months September and October.
While Italy remains popular, other destinations -- like Croatia, Greece and Montenegro -- are on the upswing.
GTC has also seen a shift to domestic travel, especially for bigger cities like New York and Boston. The World Cup is likely behind some of that, Stevens said, as is the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Domestic ADRs are up 25% this summer, with ranch-style luxury properties showing good growth, Stone said.
For the holiday season, luxury properties in the Caribbean in destinations like Turks and Caicos, St. Barts and the Cayman Islands continue to be popular, up around 50% year over year.
GTC's total sales stand at $2.4 billion annually, up from $2.3 billion last year, an increase of around 10%, according to Stevens.
The agency's average daily rate has increased to more than $1,500. GTC president Angie Licea said that number is projected to increase going forward.
More details on new-to-industry training
Stone and Licea also shared more details about GTC's planned new-to-the-industry advisor training program, which is set to launch in November.
Right now, Stone is running a pilot of the program with a few advisors who have recently joined In the Know Experiences. The program will roll out with that brand first, then to all of GTC.
The goal is to mirror the way many of GTC's most successful advisors learned the business: hands on, in an office and under the mentorship of other agents. Stone said one of her goals was to replicate the path to becoming a top performer.
The program's ideal candidates are second-career professionals because those individuals have seen the most success in GTC in the past, Stone said. It's also ideal if they come willing to work for six months to a year with little pay, a time period necessary to build a book of business.
The program will be priced at $10,000.
"It is an investment," Stone said, but the goal is to see graduates selling $1 million a year in their first year.
Today, GTC is home to 1,500 advisors in total.
"In the future, as we evolve at the business, our numbers of advisors may not grow," Licea said. "We may not be a 3,000-person agency at some point. It's about being smart about who we have, who's part of our community, how they're producing. It's about the quality of the person."
This year's Arrive conference marks the first time GTC has gathered after the unification of its brands, which saw the agency sunset the use of the Protravel International and Tzell Travel Group brands. The only other brand under GTC is In the Know Experiences.