Carnival Cruise Line has launched a yearlong initiative called Why Use A Travel Advisor, WUATA.
The program, pronounced "What-a," further solidifies the cruise line's commitment to travel agents with events called "What-a parties," social media promotions, contests, exclusive merchandise, giveaways, text alerts and more.
The coming events replace-at least for this year-Agentpalooza, which is Carnival's travel agent roadshow that celebrates advisors around the country.
"Agentpalooza was a great way to thank them, but we wanted to add more value and this is where this idea came from," said Adolfo Perez, Carnival's senior vice president of sales and trade marketing.
Perez noted that consumers still don't understand the value of a travel agent, and he wanted to create a way to make the message clear.
"Booking obviously takes a lot of time, and you are not necessarily an expert when you are trying to figure out where to go and what you want to do," he said. "When you are planning a vacation you can have somebody do all of the legwork for you."
But how do we get that information out to the consumer? Perez asked, and he decided the answer is the new WUATA program.
One of the main components of the new initiative is its WUATA Parties, which will take place in Orlando, Florida, May 8; Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 24; New York City, September 8; and Los Angeles, October 29.
Travel agents are invited to WUATA parties and can bring along clients and "not yet clients" to these events, which are centered on "why travel agents rock and why they are valuable," said Perez.
The parties will be hosted by Perez along with Carnival sales executives and business development managers.
John Heald, the line's popular brand ambassador and blogger, will also be at the premier Orlando event, and trade organizations, including the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) have both partnered with Carnival on the initiative. Each will have representatives at the four parties.
The events will highlight Carnival Cruise Line to agents and their clients but most of the time will be spent focusing on the value having a travel advisor provides.
"We are going to take the opportunity to talk about Carnival Cruise Line, and we are going to have drinks and hors d'ouevres," said Perez. "But we will also have our Diamond guests talk about why they use a travel agent, and we will give away a balcony cabin on a seven-day cruise at each event and pay commission for the cruise to the agent."
There are other benefits of attending the event. ASTA and CLIA will hold drawings for agent gifts, and clients in attendance will receive a special offer of a three-category upgrade if they book with their travel agent within a certain timeframe.
In addition to the WUATA parties, travel agents can keep in the loop with the WUATA program with WUATA word, an innovative, crowdsourced word cloud that showcases the value of agents. They can receive WUATA text updates and find WUATA tools on GoCCL.com.
Currently, WUATA parties are only planned in four cities, which were strategically selected for their value to Carnival and the number of agents in the region. But that doesn't mean there isn't potential for adding other cities in the future.
"I would love to do it in more cities. There's no reason we couldn't add more cities," noted Perez. "This is something that I think is a good idea going forward."
Now that the word is out, travel agents will be able to sign up to attend the parties on GoCCL.com. The events are available on a first-come, first served basis.
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