BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Despite what its president described as a surge
of new agent bookings, Renaissance Cruises has a way to go to
convince some cruise sellers to book the line, based on events at a
meeting of ASTA's South Florida chapter.
The July 29 meeting here featured a cruise panel that included
several cruise-line officials but no Renaissance
representatives.
Asked by the moderator to indicate by a show of hands if they
will actively promote Renaissance Cruises, none of the 90
Florida-based agents responded.
Later, about one-third indicated, by a show of hands, that they
would book Renaissance if requested to do so by clients. About
one-half indicated they wouldn't book Renaissance under any
circumstances, and a few agents raised their hands to indicate they
were undecided about Renaissance.
Despite the informal tally, Frank Del Rio, Renaissance's
co-chairman, said agents are clearly warming up to Renaissance.
"Our business with travel agents continues to grow week over week,"
said Del Rio. "Since June 17 our travel agent bookings have
increased 65%."
According to Bob Binder, Renaissance's vice president of sales,
the line is now receiving more than 50% of its bookings from travel
agents.
Renaissance last month reversed its longstanding campaign to
encourage direct bookings and discredit cruise-selling agents. The
line has delivered a $1 million bond to ASTA, which Renaissance
said it will voluntarily forfeit if it fails to abide by an
ASTA-created list of 14 new agent-friendly policies.
Under ASTA's expulsion order, Renaissance is not eligible to
rejoin ASTA until June 23, 2001. But Richard Copland, Society
president-elect, said Renaissance has abided by what it has
promised to this point and will likely be reinstated next
summer.
"They have applied, we have accepted their application and they
will be a member in June [when the line's three-year suspension
ends]," said Copland. "They're following all of the guidelines, and
they are like a provisional member, which is done all the time. If
I could change [ASTA]'s by-laws so they could become a member right
away, I would."
At the chapter meeting, Vicki Freed, CLIA's outgoing chairwoman
and senior vice president of Carnival Cruise Lines, said CLIA will
not readmit Renaissance until agents have re-embraced the line.
"It's really going to be [agents'] call on how you receive them
before we at CLIA make any sort of decision," said Freed.
Contacted by Travel Weekly, Jim Godsman, CLIA's president, said
"Our responsibility is to the travel agency community and always
has been. When we see demonstrable evidence of support for travel
agents by Renaissance, we will re-consider them for membership.
There is no timetable on that."
Several cruise executives on the panel urged agents not to book
Renaissance. Mark Conroy, president of Radisson Seven Seas Cruises
and a former Renaissance president, and Mike Applebaum, senior vice
president-sales at Royal Caribbean International, used particularly
emotional language to persuade agents to shun Renaissance.
Responding to the comments from Conroy and Applebaum, Del Rio
said, "It's disappointing to hear any cruise line executive trash a
competitor. I won't engage in that. We have an outstanding product
and I think people recognize that."
Exec: Agent sales top 50% of bookings
Six weeks after adopting a series of agent-friendly policies,
Renaissance Cruises receives more than 50% of its bookings from
travel agents, a company official said.
"We are well on our way toward securing at least 90% of our
business from travel agents," said Bob Binder, vice president of
sales. "We are grateful to the travel agency community for their
support."
Renaissance has promised to create an agent advisory board, hire
a national sales force and "re-engineer" its policies and has
signed marketing agreements with several retail groups and
associations in recent weeks, including the National Association of
Cruise-Oriented Agecies (NACOA), ACTION 6 and Cruise Planners of
Coral Springs, Fla.
Brian Major contributed to this report.