If a tragedy like we just experienced with Costa Concordia this past weekend isn’t a wake-up call for the cruise industry to turn back to travel agents, I don’t know what is. You might be asking yourself what the connection is between this tragedy and travel agents, as well as questioning my judgment, but sit tight for a moment and understand it’s actually about connections.

The cruise industry is faced with yet another challenge since consumers will have the images of the Costa Concordia, tipped on its side and half submerged, in their minds for a while. For those who have cruised before, this won’t deter them from future travels, but for those who have yet to take a cruise -- they might just be staying ashore. 

That was a point I drove home in a number of consumer media interviews I did following the Carnival Splendor engine fire in November 2010. If you’ve ever cruised you know that these incidents are extremely rare and you probably won’t be dissuaded from taking a cruise again. I wish I could say the same for those who have yet to cruise.

The timing doesn’t help in the case of the Costa Concordia, since the incident occurred during the cruise industry’s most important month -- January is part of the so-called cruise Wave period, when travel agents make a lot of cruise bookings. The images of the Concordia will be pounded into consumers’ heads by the media while the lawyers will be pounding their desks and talking about going after Costa parent Carnival Corporation in court.

The fact that anyone without a serious injury will have a tough time extracting anything due to the nature of cruise contracts probably won’t stop them. That’s the inherent danger for the cruise industry as a whole. It’s not the facts about safety at sea or even about the passengers; it’s about a sensational news story that has the ability to profoundly impact all cruise lines, not just Costa.

I witnessed this first hand when I appeared on Fox News on Saturday Night on the Judge Jeanine show. I was invited to comment on the Concordia tragedy along with a maritime attorney and a criminal defense attorney.

Mark Murphy on the Fox News Channel: January 14, 2012

That brings me to what I call travel’s first responders -- the people who step in after the real first responders compete their rescue and recovery operation.  And travel’s first responders just happen to be travel agents, the same people who still sell most cruise vacations. 

These agents, located in literally every town and city in the country, are on the front lines thwarting the negative press that is raining down on the cruise industry today. They used to simply speak one on one to individual clients who were considering a cruise, but with social media they can expand their reach exponentially. A 100,000 travel agents multiplied by their individual connections on Facebook and Twitter have the potential to reach tens of millions of consumers with a message about the real facts on safety at sea. The cruise industry would certainly be wise to harness that power to tell its story.

Mark Murphy is president and CEO of Travalliance, parent of TravelPulse.com, Agent@Home magazine, Vacation Agent magazine, Travel Agent Academy, Virtual Travel Events and Agent Studio.