If you feared the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) was neglecting its relationship with the travel agent community, think again.
The organization has appointed the popular and highly respected Dwain Wall to the new position of senior vice president of agency and trade relations, effective immediately. Wall has 30 years of experience in the travel industry and spent the past five years as general manager and senior vice president of at-home retailers CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., sister companies under the World Travel Holdings umbrella. He announced on Nov. 4 that he was leaving that position on Nov. 22.
CLIA President and CEO Christine Duffy said Wall will manage the team at the Fort Lauderdale headquarters, overseeing membership, customer service and membership marketing, while Duffy spends much of her time traveling the world now that CLIA is a global association. Wall reports directly to Duffy. He will work closely with Margaret Murphy, senior vice president of strategic marketing, who has been redesigning and creating new live and online courses for travel agents. Wall eventually will assume responsibility for travel agent education and certification as well, Duffy said.
"He will focus on North America and be more visible than I have been," Duffy said. "Margaret works behind the scenes, and Dwain will be out front, really engaging with the community and our trade relations committee." Murphy will continue to have responsibility for CLIA's North American Executive Partner program and strategic marketing relationships and promotional activities for North America.
CLIA has been working with a consultant to determine how to improve the organization's "value proposition" to travel agents, Duffy said. "We interviewed many host agencies and independent agents to get feedback on how to make membership in CLIA more relevant," she explained. "How do we continue to grow CLIA in the travel agent community? How do we provide tools agents do not have today that may not be available somewhere else? How can CLIA partner with you so we're not reinventing the wheel? We're having similar conversations with the cruise lines.
"In that process, what became clear to Margaret and me was that we needed somebody at CLIA who was a dedicated advocate for our agency membership and had very recent and current experience working with the trade," Duffy said. "Dwain is so passionate about CLIA, the work we're trying to do, the cruise industry and certainly the travel agent community, that we think he's the perfect fit."
Prior to joining World Travel Holdings, Wall co-founded the global luxury adventure travel company Grand Expeditions and helped develop national affiliate programs for Hotels.com, now part of Expedia. Previously, Wall spent more than 10 years as a senior executive at Carlson Companies.
He is a member of the International Franchise Association (IFA) and the board of directors of the Professional Association of Travel Hosts (PATH). He also has served on advisory boards for several cruise lines and tour companies, along with being an active member of CLIA's Travel Agent Advisory Board.
"Travel agents count on CLIA to provide cutting-edge resources, including marketing, training and continuing education programs," Wall said. "For independent agents, this is critical as they may not have access to such programs and for agents who are affiliated with a host or franchise, CLIA is able to complement those organization's offerings.
"In this new position, I look forward to creating a dialogue across various segments of the industry about what our future looks like and helping develop innovative offerings to enhance CLIA's value proposition. Ultimately, my goal is to help member agencies be more successful, profitable and dynamic while staying ahead of the game as the industry continues to evolve."
Last September, CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. held their annual conference when Wall cited double-digit growth in cruise bookings and a 45 percent increase in tour and resort bookings. During Wall's tenure, the organizations received numerous awards and top rankings.
For example, in 2012 CruiseOne ranked No. 45 on Entrepreneur's "Franchise 500," up 13 spots; No. 12 on Entrepreneur's "Fastest Growing Franchise," list, up 11 spots; No. 11 in Entrepreneur's "Top Home-Based Franchise" list, up three spots; and No. 12 in Forbes "Top Franchises to Start" list, a first-time ranking.
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