Destinations: Cruising Europe
by John Hawks

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Smart agents have already turned to a very dependable (and profitable!) alternative to save their Europe-bound clients a lot of dough this year: European cruises and cruise-tours.

While your clients will pay more this year for souvenirs and meals on the ground in Europe, they can lock in most of their travel expenses by booking a European cruise. The big cruise lines serving North American passengers set their fares months ago, and because most of the fare components are based on fixed costs in dollars (such as the ship's operations), they don't have to change their fares immediately when the dollar gyrates in value.

And, as more cruise lines flock to Europe -- e.g., Norwegian Cruise Line (an OSSN supplier member!) just sent its ship "Norwegian Jade" to Europe year-round for 2009 and early 2010, and Azamara Cruises says it will greatly expand its Europe schedule in 2009 -- capacity in the region will jump almost 25 percent in 2008 alone. That means more cruise deals to fill those extra cabins!

You'll find three major regions for European cruises:

• The British Isles and Western Europe. London and its surrounding area (including Dover and Southampton) is a very common embarkation port for these sailings around the United Kingdom and to ports (or add-on land stops) such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, and Paris.
  
  
• The Baltic Sea and Northern Europe. Copenhagen, London, and Stockholm are popular ports for sailings through the Baltic region (including Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Russia, as well as the Baltic republics), as well as voyages along the coast of Norway (including its famous fjords).
  
  
• The Mediterranean. You can actually divide the Med region into its western half (including Portugal and Spain, as well as France's Cote d'Azur region and the western coast of Italy, with many departures from cities such as Barcelona and Rome) and its eastern half (focusing on Croatia, Greece, eastern Italy, and Turkey, with departures from Athens, Istanbul, and Venice).

Keep these tips in mind as you plan Europe sailings for your clients:

• Single-day port calls on European voyages are never long enough. Remind your clients that European cruises are like a box of chocolates -- they're a great way to get a taste of many different ports to which they can return when the dollar makes gains against the euro in the future! There's simply no way to see everything, so they shouldn't try.
  
  
• Look beyond the typical half-day city tours. Switch up booking them into the usual sightseeing bus tours by offering to arrange private guides or booking more active shore excursions instead.
• Pick the right time of year for the cruise. It's about more than the weather. Think about the vacation patterns of Europeans (August is tough, because it's the annual vacation month for many citizens there) and the crowds of Americans taking advantage of school vacations (shoot for April-May and September-October dates to avoid these crowds).
  
  
• Plan far ahead to handle any visa issues. While many European Union countries fall under the U.S. Visa Waiver program, eliminating the need for visas in many cases for American citizens on a cruise, Russia now requires U.S. citizens to get a visa in advance if they plan to visit the country without booking a shore excursion through an approved operator.

Check CLIA's "Who Sails Where" tool to find which cruise lines offer voyages in Europe's various regions. And, take a look at OSSN's supplier member roster to learn which CLIA lines and river cruise companies belong to your association. (Other helpful resources include the Azamara and Celebrity Webinars just posted in the members-only section of OSSN.com that describe these lines' Europe plans, including Celebrity's Europe Cruisetours.)

(Credits: Azamara Cruises; Celebrity Cruises; Chmee2, Jolle; Heidas; David Monniaux)