The cruise industry's Wave Season, which is happening now through March/April, is generally when cruise lines offer up many enticing promotions to consumers to help fill the ships. This is also when many of the cruise lines release new deployments, making this prime booking time for groups as well.
Wave Season is also a busy booking period as your customers take this time to look at future travel plans and fill up their vacation calendars. And of course the cold, winter months bring thoughts of warm and sunny locations! So, you want to be sure you jump on these opportunities - it's a great time for you to go out there and grab new bookings or perhaps work on landing a first-time cruiser booking.
So, how can YOU make the most of this Wave Season?
No. 1: Know what your go-to suppliers are offering. Most of the cruise lines are offering some exceptional promotions, and your customers are counting on you to be aware of special pricing and marketing, and pass them along to them. These promotions and offers are your tools to offer your customers reduced deposits, upgrades, onboard credits and so much more.
At Nexion, our agents can access a listing of cruise offers from our 26 cruise supplier partners in our easy to use agent portal, WebView, which is updated daily. Having all these great promotions in one place makes it easier and faster for our agents to find the right offer for their customers.
No. 2: Book groups! This is also the perfect time to start working on groups for late 2015 and all of 2016. Many itineraries are already announced for 2016, and the early bird gets the worm when it comes to groups. For best pricing, Guest Amenity Program (GAP) or amenity points, you want to be proactive; start those conversations with your pied pipers or previous group travelers.
So why sell groups, you ask? Groups are profitable, and repeat and referral business is much higher with groups. Groups are also a good way to grow your business and get you in the door with new customers. Some hot group trends are family/multigenerational travel; corporate seminars, meetings and incentives; lifestyles and hobbies; and fundraising. For added commission opportunities, package other benefits such as pre- and post-cruise activities, shore excursions and insurance.
No. 3: Take advantage of the groups offered through your host or consortia when you don't have enough cabins to do a group on your own. At Nexion, our members have access to our exclusive Nexion Group Block Space as well as Group Amenity Departures and Distinctive Voyages offered through Vacation.com.
By leveraging our supplier relationships, we are able to take out a number of cruise group blocks that our agents can sell into individually for favorable pricing, access to sold-out categories, bonus commissions and guaranteed amenities for passengers. Nexion Group Block Space sailings are open promotional groups available for all Nexion members to book into, and our best agents look there first and become heroes to their customers.
By following these three, simple steps, you can finish out Wave Season on a high surge!
Visit Nexion for more information.
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