Michelle Fee Helps Kick off Travel Weekly’s Cruise World

Cruise Planners’ CEO talks about how modern travel agents can best use technology to run their businesses

Cruise Planners CEO, Michelle Fee, spoke at the first day of Cruise World to an audience of hundreds of travel advisors who focus on selling cruises. She was part of the line-up of high profile cruise executives who helped launch the first day of Cruise World, hosted by Travel Weekly and the Northstar Travel Group. 

During her inspiring presentation, Fee referenced a famous quote from the late Ted Arison, Founder of Carnival Cruise Line: “If You’re Not Making Waves…You’re Standing Still.” And Cruise Planners is always making waves, she said. 

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s important for travel agents to stand out and keep up with a competitive marketplace. But, how can home-based agents manage consumers’ high expectations while keeping a work/life balance? In response, Fee encouraged agents to have a 24/7 online strategy, which would include access to mobile apps, responsive website design and more. With Cruise Planners’ technology, advisors have full access to all of these tools, many of which are automated and updated regularly by the company’s innovative tech and marketing teams.

“You have to embrace technology and find the right technology that works for you and your business model,” Fee said. As the winner of CLIA’s Most Innovate Award this year, Cruise Planners continues to be a pillar of technology prowess and Cruise Planners travel agents thrive because of it.

In a cheeky moment, she stressed the reality that while technology is important, nothing replaces the human touch that travel agents offer. Travel advisors have a customer-focused and service-minded mentality that can combine with the technology at Cruise Planners, which helps them hit the ground running.