Sell Them a River!

PHOTO: Peter Friedman, Unique Travel and Trish Gastineau, Travel Experts.

As the river cruise industry continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, travel agents have a tremendous sales opportunity. The river cruise product itself earns high marks from clients while at the same time pays agents high commissions, and with virtually no non-commisionables. And, river cruises are a pretty easy sell, since there’s so much to recommend them.

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While Europe is still the mainstay river cruise destination, the segment’s increasingly popularity has expanded its reach. “You now have everything from the Mekong to the Amazon,” says Anita Lynch of Cruise Holidays in Durham, N.C. “Once people have dipped their toes in river cruise waters, so to speak, then it’s just a question of letting them think about what they want to do next.”

Following are 12 tips to help you generate more river cruise business.

Establish relationships with business development managers.
Trish Gastineau suggests that you contact the business development managers at river cruise companies that you are interested doing business with. “Let them know that you really want to increase your sales and ask them to help educate you on their lines’ benefits and features,” says Gastineau of Simply Europe Travel in Platteville, Ala., a Travel Experts affiliate. “The BDMs are there to help increase your sales, and we don’t always use them effectively as we could.”

Educate yourself.
“You’ve got to know your river cruise lines,” says Claire Schoeder,an agent with Century Travel in Atlanta, adding that nothing is more effective than actually experiencing the products yourself. “Hands down, nothing beats that,” she says. “Until you go, you can’t judge a river cruise very accurately at all in terms of how it works.”

Gastineau suggests that agents select the three lines they are most interested in selling and then enroll in their specialist training courses. “That’s going to help you understand the product and the different features of the river cruise lines,” she says. “Once you make a booking with one of those lines, typically you’ll receive a bonus commission, and that’s always nice.

Sponsor river cruise nights.
For starters, Gastineau suggests coordinating times for the event with business development managers. “I suggest having them themed with drinks and snacks and whatever it is you want to promote, like a special or a popular itinerary,” she says. The cruise night promotion doesn’t end with the event itself, however. “Agents need to feed off the excitement once they get a booking,” she says. “I always ask a client, ‘Hey, is there anybody who you think would enjoy doing this with you that I can send the information to?’” Gastineau says that simple question has invariably resulted in additional bookings for her.

Target client who have booked European ocean cruises.
For Lynch, prime prospects for river cruises are those travelers who have just returned from European ocean cruises. “I find that to a great degree a lot of my river cruise sales are from people who have taken ocean cruises before and now they’re ready to go to the next international experience,” she says.

First, Lynch explains the differences between river and ocean cruises to her clients. “I talk about how ocean cruises are basically ship intensive, while river crises are much more destination intensive, and how on a river cruise they will travel through the hearts of countries into those destinations in Europe that have the most history and culture.”

In her experience, Lynch has found that on ocean cruises travelers will invariably develop an affinity for a particular country. She then asks the clients about the ports and countries they loved on their ocean cruise. “I then say, ‘If you loved that, you’ll want to experience it in more depth’” on a river cruise.

Target packaged tour travelers.
Similarly, Lynch says that travel agents should never discount the prospect of converting packaged tour clients into river cruising. “Many of them have gotten to the point where it’s really too much work packing and unpacking and getting their luggage outside the door by 6 a.m.,” she says.

Peter Friedman, a travel specialist with Unique Travel in Delray Beach. Fla., also promotes the opportunities for in-depth exploration that the river cruise offers.

“The basic premise behind riverships is that you want the convenience of unpacking once, but you also want to see more internal portions of the countries visited,” says Friedman. “River cruises are one way to do that without taking a motorcoach tour or a self-drive vacation.”

Don’t overlook non-cruisers.
“Your FIT customers might want to delve more into the culture of destination, but might not want to hassle with trains or renting cars in a foreign country,” says Judy Nidetz, an agent with Travel Experts in Chicago. “I think river cruises are great for people who are interested in more in-depth experiences at the destination.”

For instance, she noted that excellent prospects for a river cruise would be clients who have already visited Paris or other European capital cities and who want an easy and convenient way in which to explore the history and culture of smaller cities, towns and villages. “This type of client may not want the stress of renting a car on their own, or want to carry luggage on and off trains,” says Nidetz.

Consider tapping the multigenerational family market.
While Nidetz makes it clear that river cruises are not ideally suited for small children, she does recommend them for families that include young adults traveling with their grandparents. “The young adults can do biking in the small towns — most of the river cruises have bike rentals when they’re in port,” she says. “The grandparents are happy to do a bus tour and the parents, in their 50s and 60s, can take part in walking type of excursions.”

Qualify the client.
First listen to your clients in order to qualify them. “They don’t know what they want until you listen to them and you say, ‘Okay, I have the solution to what it is that you’re looking for,” says Lynch. “That’s just a question of listening to your clients and knowing what it is they’re saying.”

It’s crucial to ascertain the client’s likes and dislikes before deciding which product to book, says Gastineau. “How do they want to feel when they get back?” asks Gastineau. “Is this going to a very active vacation or something really laid back?” She suggests ascertaining whether a couple is celebrating a big anniversary or ticking European destinations off a bucket list.

Gastineau also goes through the qualifying process with those clients who have previously been on river cruises.

“I do the same interview process the second time, because we don’t know that the new trip is going to be matched by that same company,” she says. “Maybe they loved that specific cruise line for that trip but their parameters have changed for the second river cruise trip.”

Promote experiences and themes beyond the destinations themselves.
Lynch makes sure that her clients are aware of the myriad experiences they will have on river cruises, including the emphasis, of course, on the wines and foods of the regions visited. “I work with my own interests,” she says, adding that as a member of wine-tasting club, she talks to her fellow wine lovers about Europe’s myriad wine regions and the river cruises that visit them.

Do not target passengers with walking disabilities.
Riverships typically are not wheelchair accessible and passengers with disabilities might have difficulty navigating the cobblestone streets that are seemingly ubiquitous in European cities and towns. “One of the biggest challenges is that there are times where riverboats actually stack next to one another in port and if the gangways don’t match up, you have to go up the stairs around the top and then down the stairs,” says Shari Marsh, Cruise Holidays, Raleigh, N.C.

Explain smaller cabin sizes.
Generally speaking, staterooms tend to be smaller on river cruises than ocean-going ships. Ocean-going cruisers may make the assumption that riverboat cruise staterooms are comparable, says Victoria Pandolfo, an agent with Altour in Chicago.

She makes sure her clients know that rivership cabins are usually smaller than those on cruise ships. “I don’t want them to get on and go, ‘Wow, she really puts us in a closet here,’” she says. “If they’ve never cruised, you don’t have to tell them as much but people that have cruised before will see a difference.”

Know what’s included.
Although river cruise lines are considered all-inclusive products, some lines are more inclusive then others. Does a particular line include such amenities as wine with lunch and dinner? “Sometimes you can add such things as beverage packages,” says Schoeder.

What shore excursions are included? “Some components that I think should be included might be considered an optional tour,” she says. “It’s just a case of knowing what they should be seeing at a destination and then determining ing what is actually offered and provided.”