PHOTO: AmaWaterways and other river cruise lines also are very supportive of home-based travel agents.

John Gawne has worked as an at-home travel agent as long as Agent@Home magazine has been around — 10 years — so he’s personally witnessed changes in his relationships with cruise lines, as well as with brick-and-mortar agencies.

“When I first started and attended training or meetings for agents held locally by cruise line representatives, most of the attendees were from traditional storefront agencies,” he recalls. “I found that the storefront agencies didn’t view home-based agents as legitimate agents. Also, cruise line representatives tended to bring materials for use in office windows and lobbies for distribution, as they had always done for storefront agencies.”

That quickly changed, says Gawne, a Cruises Inc. independent vacation specialist from Virginia Beach, Va.

“It didn’t take long for the travel industry to recognize that the economy was forcing many storefront agencies to close or move to a home-based model,” Gawne observes. “The industry made online web-based training the standard instead of local live seminars, and some established business development specialist positions especially targeting the home-based agents. Sophisticated online training programs were developed and offered to agents for certification by the cruise lines, often including low-priced cruise offerings on completion. These courses could be started, paused, and continued based on the agent’s schedule and availability.”

And, of course, bottom-line results helped.

“As long as I was able to make respectable sales levels, every cruise line made business development specialists or managers available to me,” Gawne says. “I considered this business my full-time occupation, invested time and money into marketing and serving my growing customer base, and that was recognized by the cruise lines. Their representatives initiated contact with me.”

Yes, you’ve come a long way, home-based travel agents, especially those who specialize in selling cruises.

“There is such a difference in working with the cruise lines today as opposed to in the beginning,” says Mike Gelman, a Cruise Planners franchise owner in Flowery Branch, Ga., who has been a home-based travel agent since 1993. “They recognize the new business model and support it 100 percent. We have our own BDMs now, and that makes a big difference. If we need additional help, we have someone at every cruise line who we can contact and we are now treated with respect.”

When he first started, Gelman says clients who learned he worked at home were sometimes hesitant to book with him.

“The cruise lines also did not take us seriously,” he recalls. “During the past 10 years, things have changed dramatically. With our new computer system and technology innovations, our clients know that we are all linked together. I am no longer asked the dreaded question: ‘Do you have a brick-and-mortar office or do you have to work at home?’ ”

Of course, technology changed the face of the way many companies do business. But the evolution of the home-based segment of travel retailing has been nothing short of breathtaking.

“The status of independent agents has evolved tremendously over the past 10-25 years,” says Jackie Friedman, president of the Nexion host agency. “The channel now represents between 40 and 45 percent of all travel agents and continues to grow.”

She attributes the growth to several factors. Of course, the Internet is top of the list.

“Agents have access to more information, booking tools, marketing resources, and social networking sites to manage and promote their businesses,” Friedman says. “They are trending toward specialization and, as a result, their customers can come from anywhere. The emergence of host agencies and other fulfillment partners has allowed agents to sell airline tickets at home without the need to meet the ARC requirement of maintaining a secure office location.”

And, as the Internet changed the way people work and socialize, the stigma began to fall away.

“The industry and consumer perception of the at-home agent has also changed,” Friedman says. “Not so long ago these agents were viewed as ‘hobbyists’ and were perceived to be not as professional as their brick-and-mortar counterparts. This perception through the years has changed. It really is irrelevant where an independent travel professional works from. Agents should not be chained to their home offices working in their businesses; they need to get out into their communities and work on building their business. Home-based agents are unique in that they are both a business owner and frontline agent. They need to have a good balance of both hard skills like product, destination and booking tool knowledge, and, at the same time, they need the soft skills like marketing, sales, and business management.”

The cruise lines today also recognize the importance of the home-based community.

“Over the past 10 years, the travel community has realized the strength of home-based agents and as such we’re seeing more tools than ever to assist these travel sellers in running a successful business from home,” says Joni Rein, vice president-worldwide sales for Carnival Cruise Lines. “Home-based agents are extremely important to Carnival — they are the frontline agents to the backyards of America, where millions of cruise rookies are just waiting to be sold their first cruise. The unique reach they have in their communities is something that helps them tap into areas we simply can’t. We rely on their sales and marketing skills to help us bring hundreds of thousands of new cruisers on board with us, and that’s something that will be important to us for many years to come.”

Today, Carnival has a team dedicated to working with home-based agents, and finds that many participate in initiatives such as Carnival Conversations events and training and use Carnival Passport educational tools. “This is no surprise to us given the entrepreneurial spirit that goes with being a home-based agent,” Rein says. “They are running their own businesses and know that what they put into it is what they’ll get out of it.”

The at-home community also is important to river cruise lines.

“The value of the home-based travel professional has continued to increase steadily over the past 10 years,” says Kristin Karst, executive vice president and co-founder of AmaWaterways. “Many agencies, which were formerly storefronts, have shifted to a home-based business model, due to the rising costs of doing business and to economic factors that have made doing business in a home-based environment very appealing. Additionally, a large segment of agents who were formerly affiliated with traditional storefront agencies have gone out on their own, in an effort to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Affiliating with a host or franchise has helped these people be successful.”

AmaWaterways connects with at-home retailers by attending national and regional meetings and tradeshows, as well as consortia and host agency conferences. The river line also is creating a travel agent portal for agents to book online, view current promotions, and download and personalize marketing collateral with their agency information.

“It is all about keeping open lines of communication, ensuring we continue innovating the way we do business with home-based agents, and ultimately, making sure these agents feel appreciated and connected,” Karst says. “As a company, AmaWaterways is 100 percent supportive of the travel agency distribution model, and we maintain a complete commitment to working with home-based agents to help them be successful.”

And the future looks very bright for the home-based travel agent community, especially because it is growing so quickly, attracting people from other careers or businesses.

“We have seen people from all walks of life succeed as Cruise Planners agents,” says Michelle Fee, CEO and co-founder of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative. “From teachers and nurses, to hairstylists and car mechanics, as long as they have a passion for travel, are willing to learn about the business and have Cruisitude, they will be successful. Home-based agents are vital to the cruise and travel industry since they are peppered throughout the U.S. building their brands, meeting new travelers and selling the world. They offer a real boots-on-the-ground approach with personalized service that only travel agents can provide.”

Fee, like most others in the industry, says most successful independent travel sellers are aligned with a strong host agency or franchise operator. “Home-based agents should be affiliated with a host or franchise company so they don’t leave any money on the table,” she says. “The right host company has amazing tools to help the agents sell, along with training, marketing support and exclusive negotiated offers. No agent can truly do it all, so aligning with the right host company is the best way to be successful.”

Agreeing is Debbie Fiorino, senior vice president of sister travel agency networks CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., who also notes an increase in the number of younger people choosing to become independent consultants or franchise owners.

“Working from home has become a popular option for people with young families who want to be there for their children to Baby Boomers who are not quite ready for retirement,” Fiorino says. “Millennials are also attracted to this industry because it is a low-cost, low-risk investment with great potential to succeed. In fact, the number of millennials who own a CruiseOne franchise has increased by 16 percent in the past three years.”

And that can only ensure the home-based community will continue to grow in size and strength for the next 10 years and beyond.