Cruise Planners Continues to Infuse Land-Focused Sales Tools for Travel Advisors Network
This week, Cruise Planners launched the first installment of four half-day virtual training events. The first in the series was focused on land vacation sales.
“Many may be surprised to learn that Cruise Planners has dominated as a top producer in land sales for several years. Let me dispel the myth that Cruise Planners is only a large volume cruise seller,” said Michelle Fee, CEO and Founder of Cruise Planners. “Our advisors are full-service travel advisors and Cruise Planners’ land business currently makes up half of our sales.”
In fact, Cruise Planners reigns as the #1 global seller of Sandals and Beaches worldwide and a top seller of many all-inclusive resorts, FIT and escorted tours. During the pandemic, Cruise Planners was quick to respond and provide additional training on land travel through a variety of initiatives. This helped all Cruise Planners advisors, but especially those who were primarily cruise sellers to pivot to selling all-inclusive resorts, helping keep their businesses alive and earn income.
To kick off the land-vacation focused virtual event, two of Cruise Planners top producing travel advisors shared their best practices about booking land vacations while talking about group business opportunities such as weddings and incentive groups. The collaborative session included questions from the nationwide network of travel advisors, and as expected the peer-to-peer learning opportunities that Cruise Planners provides were well received. The duo shared their experiences on properly qualifying clients, working with destination wedding couples and educating clients about the value of a travel advisor.
Top land vendors that participated included Sandals, Playa Hotels, Karisma Resorts, AMResorts, Delta Vacations, American Airlines Vacations, Trafalgar, Apple Leisure Group and Europe Express. The interactive day was jam packed with insider tips, cross-selling sales strategies, and Cruise Planners’ latest technology enhancements dedicated to support land travel. Some of the land enhancements Cruise Planners launched during the past year include:
- All-Inclusive Resort Tool – Robust database of all-inclusive resort options with filtering capabilities to help narrow down selections to the best resorts to fit client’s needs
- CP Partner Hub – Centralized database of travel supplier partners’ important information such as the latest covid policies, flexible cancellation policies and recently added a Ratings and Reviews section, which has been handy as both agents and consumers submit reviews for land-based vacation options
- Vacation Wizard – Tool for Cruise Planners advisors to identify relevant recommendations for client-specific requests based on destination to find various travel supplier partners offering tours or services in those destinations
- Resort Sheets – Property sheets for the advisors to email price quotes for clients and include resort photos, details and other sales-related information
- Consumer Events – Where2Next virtual consumer event series:
o All Inclusive Resorts featuring Karisma and Sandals
o Theme Parks featuring Universal Studios and Disney World Resorts
o Domestic Rail featuring Yankee Holidays, Amtrak Vacations and Railbookers
- Expanded Golf-Themed Options – Golf continues to be a major sport that consumers are looking to enjoy on vacations around the world and Cruise Planners has recently added Golfpac Travel to its portfolio to provide a golf packages to their clients
Future of Land Travel
As more travelers are exposed to new vacation options, increasing demand for land-based travel will continue to rise.
“With summer travel right around the corner,” Fee said. “Cruise Planners advisors are extremely well versed in curating the perfect vacation for all of their clients.”
