Join RCI in San Diego!
by Martin Deutsch

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In commenting on the agent turnout (both in the training sessions and on the trade show floor), Hanlon-Bosso says that the home-based agents attending the show "soaked up the information like sponges." She also points out that the General Session in Atlantic City attracted more than 800 travel agent delegates to hear, among other keynote speakers, Lisa Bauer (Royal Caribbean's senior vice president of sales). In total, the Home Based Agent Show drew 1,318 travel agents from 37 states and Canada, as well as nearly 300 domestic and international suppliers.

Royal Caribbean was one of the first companies to introduce a dedicated home-based agent department in 2003, responding to the rising volume and higher yields from home-based agents who have become ever more important to the cruise line's growth. Hanlon-Bosso, who has been with the company for 12 years in a sales capacity and in her current job for the last year, is enthusiastic about her role, which allows her to set up programs and systems that keep Royal Caribbean connected around-the-clock with home-based agents.

In specific terms, Hanlon-Bosso highlights the importance of CruiseMatch, an all-embracing online sales tool that allows home-based travel agents to access real-time cruise availability as well as the lowest possible fares for a requested booking. CruiseMatch and Royal Caribbean's new eTools can be found in the travel agent secured Web site CruisingPower.com. The sophistication of Royal Caribbean's newly enhanced eTools encourages users to be savvy and innovative on their own. Hanlon-Bosso says these tools allow home-based agents to engage in personalized eMarketing with Royal Caribbean's award-winning Cruise Planner, create vivid, compelling e-quotes, and take part in the company's online certification program (the University of WOW).

"Cruisingpower.com allows our home-based agents to stay connected 24-7," says Hanlon-Bosso. "The RoyalPartners@Home bimonthly online newsletter is also an active ingredient that allows effective dialogue between Royal Caribbean and the home-based community." In addition, these agents have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with Royal Caribbean sales representatives at such venues as the recent trade show and conference in Atlantic City, which Hanlon-Bosso believes is a rewarding activity for all involved.

Royal Caribbean's various programs to stay connected with its home-based agents are particularly relevant, especially when you take into account the frequent complaint that it's difficult to identify the home-based agent market and really get your arms around it. The rapid growth of the home-based sales force lends credence to the kinds of connectivity that Royal Caribbean and its sister company, Celebrity Cruises, practice diligently with their separate home-based departments. Hanlon-Bosso cites the many faces of the home-based community, including totally independent travel agents, outside travel agents working with a particular travel agency, those who work within the framework of a host agency, and those who are in a franchise situation.

While dollar figures are still hard to come by, Hanlon-Bosso says home-based travel agents currently account for approximately 35 percent of Royal Caribbean's bookings, as opposed to those from traditional brick-and-mortar travel agents, and that this percentage is growing. Just last year, a Royal Caribbean executive cited 75 percent as the percentage of dollar revenues provided by traditional retail outlets, as opposed to contributions from home-based agents. Meanwhile, without any exact statistics to rely on, Hanlon-Bosso says that as far as Royal Caribbean is concerned, bookings from home-based agents represent "a very viable business."

At this point in the conversation, we talked for a few minutes about some of the mega-liners that are joining Royal Caribbean's mushrooming fleet. The Freedom class, which now includes the 3,400-passenger “Freedom of the Seas” and “Liberty of the Seas,” will be joined in May 2008 by the “Independence of the Seas,” which will initially cruise the waters of Northern Europe. Then, in the fall of 2009, the first vessel in the Genesis class will make her debut with a guest capacity of 5,400, literally a village afloat. The only thing lacking onboard will be a full-sized football field.

Getting back to the subject at hand, we discussed the next Original Home Based Agent Show & Conference in San Diego, set for April 28-May 1, 2008. In Atlantic City, Royal Caribbean brought in 200 laptops to the Technology Forum, while a number of other agents brought their own computers for a day of hands-on training. "We were working with the cream of the home-based crop and at least half of them would have been more than willing to spend the entire day – that's how serious they were," Hanlon-Bosso says. She also stressed that the experience in Atlantic City underscored the fact that these agents needed different levels of training, allowing beginners to move up to intermediate stages and those in the middle to move into advanced classes.

In light of this, at the next Home Based Agent Show in San Diego, Royal Caribbean will provide more compartmentalized training in smaller venues to accommodate differing requirements at different levels. In short, Hanlon-Bosso clearly expects that Royal Caribbean's input in San Diego will be refined to meet the specific demands of specific home based travel agents. "We always learn from the previous experience," she says.

The Home Based Agent Show & Conference in San Diego will be held at the 1,000-room Town and Country Resort & Convention Center. For more information on early-bird travel agent registration and low-cost hotel accommodations, please visit www.sdtravelshow.com. Suppliers wishing to learn more about exhibiting at this event can contact Jim Cloonan at 617-744-1671 or jim@travelindustryshows.com.

Martin B. Deutsch serves as chairman of Travel Industry Shows.

(Credits: Travel Industry Shows)