CLIA UK & Ireland Informer October 2014

October 2014 | CLIA UK & Ireland Informer

www.cruiseexperts.org

Thank you for being yourself(ie) River Cruise Convention 2014 Get your tickets now!

Kick Start Your Cruise Sales Where will you meet us this Autumn?

Meet our Executive Partner TravelCube launches new promotion as cruise travel grows

Cruise Week “Selfie” Photo Wall of Fame

Online this Month

Welcome to October!

What an amazing Cruise Week this year – with competitions, selfies (pictures later in Informer), plenty of promotions and lots of offers exclusive for CLIA member travel agents from our cruise lines. We are delighted so many of our partners got involved – and there is plenty of time to still prove to the world that we #lovecruise Of course there is plenty of the year left to get involved with CLIA and the cruise industry! We have some great events coming up (including our River Cruise Convention an our regional Kick Start evenings) and we are in the process of further adding to the invaluable resources on our website including our worldwide exclusive Brochure Rack that launched this month – have you been onto the site recently?

Have a great month!

Brochure Rack, Voyages of Discovery Webinar & Sales Guides

Pete’s Training

Overcoming Barriers To Selling

Andy Harmer CLIA UK & Ireland, Director

www.cruiseexperts.org

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CLIA UK & Ireland Informer

Are you booked?

CLIA UK & Ireland

River Cruise Convention

Sunday 16 - Monday 17 November Amsterdam Uniworld/Titan

A-Rosa

On the 16th & 17th November, the fabulous city of Amsterdam will see the return of the CLIA UK & Ireland River Cruise Convention.

The 2 days will be packed full of a multitude of ship visits, conference sessions, trade fair and networking opportunities. Delegates will also dine and stay overnight onboard one of the River ships. If you are serious about building your river cruise business and want to learn more about this fantastically diverse and exciting sector of the industry, this is the event for you! We are delighted to confirm the following ships will be in attendance during the event (with other companies still to advise details):

Amadeus River Cruises AmaWaterways

Emerald Waterways

Overnight stays on a selection of the above ships will be confirmed nearer the time. We are unfortunately unable to honour requests for specific ships however if you have a share request then please do let us know, otherwise rooms are allocated on a same sex share basis.

If you are arriving early into Amsterdam then please note that we have secured a rate at the Movenpick Hotel, where the conference and trade fair part of the event will take place, just a stones throw away from the river cruise port at EUR 169 per room per night room only.

BOOK NOW We welcome our CLIA Travel Agent members to book at our member rate of ÂŁ50. To Book, please visit www.cruiseexperts.org and head to the Events page

European Waterways

European River cruising

CroisiEurope RIVER CRUISES

GUIDED TOURS & RIVER CRUISES

Shearings Holidays

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CLIA UK & Ireland Informer

CLIA UK & Ireland invite you to

MANCHESTER Thursday 23 October

Radisson Blu Hotel Manchester Airport

17.30 18.00 19.30 - 20.00 21.30

BELFAST

Tuesday 28 October

Radisson Blu

Registration & Arrival Drinks Training and Networking Fork Buffet Dinner Event Finishes

Join us at one of our free evening networking events that combines product updates with special advice on how you can Kick Start Your Cruise Sales

GLASGOW

Wednesday 29 October

Hilton Glasgow

NORWICH

Thursday 20 November

Sprowston Manor Marriott Hotel & Country Club

To Book your free place as a CLIA UK & Ireland Member, please head to www.cruiseexperts.org and head to the Events page For more information, please contact: Augustus Lonsdale alonsdale@cruising.org

BRAND NEW ‘Where in the World’ Wednesday Quiz Become a destination expert with Celebrity Cruises®, with our fun new addition to Cruising for Excellence Online…

‘Where in the World’ Wednesday!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

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CLIA UK & Ireland Informer

Meet our Selling Cruise Sponsor Travelcube

Route to Success

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Commission Cove

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Your guide to extra cruise revenues

Easy Bay

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Revenue Point

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Profit Island

For a selection of hand-picked hotels, sightseeing and transfers go to…

travelcube.com/cruise

hotels

•

sightseeing

•

transfers

TravelCube launches new promotion as cruise travel grows Online booking site TravelCube has launched a new promotion to help retail travel agents book hotels, transfers, sightseeing and more for cruise passengers. A dedicated microsite, www.travelcube.com/cruise, will help the industry serve demand that has increased 77% to 21.3 million passengers.

Although the majority of the world’s passengers come from North America, 1.7 million hail from the UK and Ireland according to research by the Cruise Lines International Association. The average length of a cruise is seven days with three to four port calls, giving plenty of opportunity for agents to recommend attractions, tours and experiences to passengers. With many cruise packages booked far in advance, TravelCube has secured room availability until 2016 or beyond.

“TravelCube gives agents accommodation options before and after the cruise, tour guide and transfer services, unique experiences, excursions and attraction tickets too. All can be booked in the same place, easily helping agents to upsell and offer excellent customer service,” says Paul Hewer, Head of Sales for TravelCube UK & Ireland.

Piloting in the UK initially, the website is expected to be a major success and will be rolled out elsewhere in the future. It will be supported by an email campaign focusing on ports in Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East. www.travelcube.com/cruise features hotels in 14 key cruise destinations in these regions.

Agents can earn commission on every part of their pre- and post-cruise booking with Travel Cube from hotels and transfers to airport lounges and sightseeing. Excellent cancellation policies and online booking amendments are enhanced by unrivalled customer support during the trip.

Our Cruise Week ‘Selfie’ Wall of Fame...

CliaUkIreland

CLIA UK & Ireland Informer

www.cruiseexperts.org

Online This Month at www.cruiseexperts.org We have been working hard this year to add even more invaluable resources to our website to give you access to not just world-class training, but also resources that will help you sell more cruises.

We are very excited this week to launch a world-exclusive: the biggest digital Brochure Rack of cruise brochures in the world – 100 brochures so far and counting… AND it is is searchable, downloadable, and printable, and you can share pages or whole brochures with your customers. This is a unique resource built just for you!

The Brochure Rack follows a number of other enhancements made online this year: Sales Guides: magazine style content exclusively written for CLIA members that takes you through river cruising, cruise destinations and cruise holidays. Our Sales Guides are updated monthly, and are archived for your viewing pleasure!

Selling Cruising

Groups

THIS

MONTH

Selling Rivers

Canal Cruising Selling Destinations

Northern Europe Resource Centre: constantly being updated, our Centre is the perfect place to keep up to date with the latest stats and reports so that you do not miss a thing!

Webinar Library: in addition to our frequently held live webinars, all are recorded so that you can watch them at a time and day to suit you – perfect for product updates!

P

SIGN U

Thursday 9th October - 9.30am Learn the exciting news about the Voyages of Discovery, including new itineraries.

“CLIA Discovers” Destination Series: using pre-recorded webinars hosted by CLIA expert Peter Kollar, our Destination series is training unlike anything else you will find giving you in-depth knowledge to key cruise ports and destinations. Find it in the Learning Academy.

Simply head to cruiseexperts.org and head for the Members Area.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments where we add even more value to your membership.

www.cruiseexperts.org

CLIA Training Page

Overcoming Barriers To Selling

By Peter Kollar, CLIA Australasia

Firstly…and this is critical…the fact that they are talking to you implies there is at least some interest. Some people visit travel agents after they have shopped around for a while, and the truth is no matter how many people your client has shopped with, if they have come to you then they HAVEN’T yet received something that they need. It might be price, it may be value, it may be completely the wrong holiday has been offered, or that they are looking for a new agent to take care of their holiday bookings.

If it is price, is £5 off really going to make a difference to their hoilday? Probably not, so even in this case pricing could really be a front for a larger need they have.

So why haven’t they booked with other agents they have spoken to? A simple question is “have you been offered a cruise yet?” The answer to this will let you know if they’ve spent some time with another agent prior, and if they have, just plainly ask; “is there a reason why that doesn’t appeal to you?”. If you get down to this key point, you will know a little more about them, which gives you a great insight as to how you could overcome any barriers coming your way.

An example would be that the client didn’t feel the agent addressed the detail of their needs enough, so straightaway you will know that you need to be very specific in what you offer.

Your primary role as a salesperson is to identify and eliminate any barriers. The biggest reason that customers look elsewhere to book their cruise is because the agent did not find out exactly what holiday the customer is looking for at the start of the consultation – spending extra time here is invaluable in removing any barriers later when you find the right cruise for them.

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