Travel agencies are praising CLIA’s Cruise Industry Safety Toolkit, originally announced at Cruise3sixty in April and now available on CLIA’s website, Cruising.org.
Agents said they saw it as a way to allay the fears of travelers hesitating to book a cruise because of security concerns.
Publicity about the Costa Concordia accident in January sent cruise sales plummeting. Since then, the industry has been trying to convince travelers that cruising is safe.
Some agency groups — Cruise Planners, CruiseOne/Cruises Inc. and Cruise Holidays, to name a few — had already provided agents with information to help them deal with consumer safety concerns.
The toolkit packages resources that include videos of experts talking about cruise ship safety procedures and policies, a 30-page PDF about cruise safety and a one-page Word document agents can customize and give to clients. In addition, it provides common questions clients ask, along with suggested answers.
“I really do applaud CLIA for this comprehensive toolkit,” said Scott Koepf, vice president of sales for Avoya Travel.
Montrose Travel was planning to use it as the basis for a landing page on its website to deal with concerns about safety.
People who are on the fence can be swayed by what they hear from family and friends, said Mark Schiffner, vice president of Cruise Holidays. And that can include agents.
“When Joe or Jane at the travel agency down the street says, ‘Listen, I’ve been on 50 cruises and enjoyed every one of them, and here’s a little take-home piece for you so you can think about it,’ that is going to mean something to them,” Schiffner said.
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