At Cruise360, held at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County Convention
Center in April, the message to travel advisors was both celebratory and
direct: the cruise industry is growing, the opportunity is expanding, and
advisors remain essential to helping travelers navigate an increasingly dynamic
marketplace.
The biggest professional
development event of the year for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), this year’s Cruise360 drew more than 1,300
professionals, including travel advisors, exhibitors, sponsors and press. Of
those, advisors represented 56 percent of registrants—more than half of them first-timers.
Record-Breaking Number
of CLIA-Certified Attendees
“This year, we are proud to
report that more than 64 percent of our attendees have achieved one or more
levels of CLIA certification, which is a record-breaking milestone,” said Charles
Sylvia, ECC, CLIA’s vice president of industry and trade relations, during the
opening general session.
Bud Darr, CLIA’s president and
CEO, framed the advisor role in sweeping terms.
“You, as the travel advisor
community, shape the landscape on how cruise is sold, how it’s understood and
how it grows,” Darr said. “The role you play is vital. It’s highly valued by me
and the cruise line members I serve.”
Cruise Demand Is
Strong—and Still Has Room to Grow
Darr delivered a bullish
assessment of the cruise sector, citing CLIA’s 2026 State of the Cruise Industry Report. “The state of this industry is excellent,” said Darr. He
pointed to 37.2 million passengers carried in 2025—a number he said would soon
pass 40 million. This year, there will be 325 CLIA-member ocean-going ships, as
well as an order book of more than 80 ships on the horizon.
He cited the cruise industry's
$198 billion-plus global economic impact and 1.8 million jobs worldwide. In the
U.S., Darr added, the industry accounts for roughly $75.5 billion in economic
impact and 333,000 jobs.
But perhaps the more important
takeaway for advisors was not simply that cruise is growing, but that it still
has plenty of room to grow.
“There’s great reason for
optimism,” Darr said, noting that cruise still represents “a very, very small
sliver” of the overall tourism market.
Nearly a third of today’s cruise
guests are under 40—a number that continues to decline. “That means we’ve got a
new lifeline of people coming in to enjoy these experiences,” Darr said.
Plus, nearly 90 percent of cruisers
say they intend to sail again—the highest level ever recorded by CLIA.
The Presidents Panel included (left to right) moderator Scott Koepf from Cruise Planners, Carnival’s Christine Duffy, Norwegian’s Marc Kazlauskas and Virgin Voyages’ John Lovell. (Photo Credit: Sara Perez Webber)
Why
CLIA Certification Matters
In an interview for TravelPulse,
Sylvia and Darr expanded on the role CLIA certification can play in helping
advisors capitalize on that growth.
Sylvia said that CLIA-certified
travel advisors generate nearly four times as many cruise sales as their
non-certified counterparts. "The whole reason why CLIA has a travel trade
program is that the travel trade is the leading distribution channel for the
cruise industry,” said Sylvia, who has earned the Elite Cruise Counselor (ECC) certification
and estimates he is on a cruise ship “every three weeks or so.”
The goal of certification, said
Sylvia, is to help advisors represent cruise travel “in the most professional
way, the most informed way possible,” so they can match “the right client to
the right cruise line, the right ships, the right itineraries.”
That expertise matters, Darr
said, because the cruise marketplace is rich with choice—and because clients
can easily choose the wrong cruise without professional guidance.
“An agent can really add a lot of
value,” said Darr, who’s in the process of earning his CLIA certification. “If
you book through a travel agent, we have data that shows you get much higher
satisfaction rates.”
AI as an Advisor
Productivity Tool
Technology—and particularly
AI—was another recurring theme at Cruise360. The message from CLIA and cruise
line executives was not that AI should be feared, but that advisors should
learn how to use it strategically.
Darr said advisors can use AI
tools “to become better at what they do, serve more customers more efficiently,
faster and more accurately.”
At the same time, he cautioned
that direct booking will likely become easier for some consumers. “That’s the
reality,” Darr said. “But I don’t think we’ll lose the need for that human
interaction and the value proposition that advisors can bring to the table.”
Cruise Line
Presidents Take the Stage
That idea was echoed during the
Presidents Panel, moderated by Scott Koepf, chief strategy officer with Cruise
Planners, and featuring Christine Duffy,
president of Carnival Cruise Line; Marc
Kazlauskas, president of Norwegian Cruise Line; and John Lovell, board member and senior advisor at Virgin
Voyages.
Lovell said AI should be viewed
as a tool, not a replacement.
“The internet did not displace
you,” Lovell pointed out to advisors. “I think the internet made you much
stronger.”
Travelers, he added, still want
“affirmation” and “confirmation.”
“AI will never do that,” Lovell added.
“That’s what you’re in the business to do.”
Cruise360 attendees could meet suppliers on the bustling trade show floor. (Photo Credit: CLIA Media)
Cruise
Leaders Reaffirm the Value of the Trade
The Presidents Panel also
underscored the degree to which several cruise leaders have deep roots in the
retail travel side of the business.
Duffy noted that she started as a
travel advisor before eventually becoming Carnival’s president.
“With the three of us here,
there’s a different perspective about the importance of putting people in
leadership that actually understand maybe from the bottom up how things work,”
she said. “We’ve all been connected to the travel advisor community. That’s
where our roots are.”
Kazlauskas pointed to Norwegian
Cruise Line’s Partners First Rewards and the elimination of Non-Commissionable
Fares (NCFs) as examples of listening to advisors.
“We heard loud and clear from you
that you need to be paid fairly for what you do,” he said, generating
enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Kazlauskas pointed to three
pressure points facing advisors today—unpredictability in travel, the challenge
of air connectivity and the threat of disintermediation—and offered a
straightforward prescription for the third: “By putting out great service,
being loyal to your clients, being able to show your value—and working with
partners like us—it helps overcome that.”
Growing Demand for
Private Destinations
Cruise executives also pointed to
private destinations as an increasingly important driver of consumer demand. “They’re
a big game-changer for the industry,” said Duffy, mentioning Carnival’s
Paradise Collection. “People love going to these destinations, and we’re able
to curate that experience as an extension of what they are experiencing on the
ship.”
Lovell wrapped up the session by
noting that cruise companies—including Virgin Voyages—will continue to grow:
“This industry will be stronger than it’s ever been in the next 5 to 10 years.….
Anytime you talk to a cruise line executive, thank them for investing in you,
because they need you to sell it.”
Sales and Marketing
Execs in “Hot Seat”
In the second general session, moderator
Joshua Harrell, chief revenue officer at WorldVia
Travel Network, brought seven cruise
line sales and marketing executives to the “hot seat”—one at a time, seven
minutes each, with a ship’s horn to end their time, whether they were finished
or not.
The result was one of the
conference’s most energized sessions, with leaders from Carnival, Celebrity,
MSC Cruises, Norwegian, Princess, Royal Caribbean and Virgin Voyages sharing
their lines’ latest news and underscoring their commitment to travel advisors.
Highlights included Celebrity
Cruises’ Katina Athanasiou, senior vice
president of sales and services, The Americas, speaking about the brand’s entry
into river cruising—a space she described as “prime for transformation and
innovation”—and building their product from scratch.
Janet Wygert, senior vice
president of trade sales and marketing at Carnival Cruise Line, described
Carnival’s Funnel Faves platform as part of a broader effort to support and
celebrate advisors. “Our only job is to help you grow,” she said.
Norwegian’s Chief Sales Officer
John Chernesky revisited the NCF story with specifics: “We’ve done examples
where, if you’re doing an Alaska booking [without NCFs] you’re making 24% more
commission. On a Caribbean booking, 32% more.”
Photo ops were set up in Carnival Corporation’s Travel Advisor Lounge. (Photo Credit: Sara Perez Webber)
Feedback from
Advisors on the Floor
Seeing the cruise lines’ top
executives in person at Cruise360 was a highlight for advisors such as Tonia
Badura, a cruise and groups specialist with Serene Lotus Journeys in
Clearwater, Florida. “It’s been incredible, being able to learn from all the
different suppliers, and also to put a face to the name of the people that we
see and hear on the webinars that are offered by the suppliers,” she said.
A first-time attendee, Badura
said the networking opportunities at the show were “amazing.” She found the
President's Panel meaningful because of the executives' travel-sales
backgrounds.
“I really feel like they truly do
have the interest of travel advisors at the forefront of their brands,” she
said. Badura was planning to gather more information on river cruising at the
Cruise360 trade show, noting she’s seeing increased interest from her
Florida-based clients, who are more accustomed to ocean cruising.
Finding Inspiration by
Talking to Fellow Advisors
Kellie Sheets, owner of Kellie’s
Odyssey Outings, also attended Cruise360 for the first time. A home-based
advisor in Georgia, Sheets said she had already been taking CLIA courses online
and saw the event as a way to get “a lot of courses up front.”
A luxury-cruising seminar, she
said, was especially valuable, inspiring her to develop new marketing
strategies. Sheets also appreciated the in-person exchange of ideas among
advisors. “We kind of feed off each other, giving each other ideas of what we
can do,” she said.
For longtime advisor Nadia Folic,
a cruise and vacation consultant with Expedia Cruises in Plantation, Florida,
Cruise360 remains energizing after many years in the business: “I come here
because it revitalizes me.”
Certification Leads
to Connections and Confidence
Folic’s involvement with CLIA has
led to invaluable connections. Folic recalls being surprised when CLIA’s Sylvia
recognized her once when they were on the same sailing and notes that she’s on
a first-name basis with Royal Caribbean’s senior vice president of sales and
trade relations, Vicki Freed. “This industry is more than sales,” she said.
“It’s people, and you work together.”
Folic, who holds multiple
professional credentials—including CLIA’s
ECC—said certification has helped her project confidence and
professionalism.
“I went all the way to the top
with CLIA [certification] and that took many years, but for me it’s a way to
feel confident,” she said. “When you present yourself to somebody, you feel
strong about who you are and what you know, and it spills out to people so they
can trust you.”
For their part, suppliers attend
Cruise360 to get their message out to advisors who sell their products. Priscilla
Reyes, Costa Cruise Lines’ head of sales
and trade marketing, North America, was spreading the word about Costa
Cruisetelling. The new six-module training program is designed to help travel
advisors better understand and sell Costa Cruises.
“The most important thing that we
get from coming to Cruise360 is engaging with travel advisors, with people that
we don’t get to see all the time,” said Reyes. “It’s always helpful to put a
face to a name and to understand where our advisors are coming from.”
Tapping into an
Expanding Market
Darr offered a key piece of advice for advisors looking to sell more cruises:
“Be educated and be a good listener to what your clients really want. You have
to have the knowledge to know which questions to ask, and you have to listen
carefully to the answers to create the right match.”
Sylvia framed the opportunity even more directly. “When my friends ask me
how business is, I say to them, ‘We can’t build the ships fast enough,’” Sylvia
said. For advisors ready to seize that demand, he added, the message from
Cruise360 was clear: “There’s nothing holding you back.”
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