by Jim Byers
Last updated: 6:11 PM ET, Tue June 15, 2021
For years, travel advisors who book cruises have been given commission crumbs. A new group called Cruise CEO says it give agents the whole cake.
Cruise CEO made its grand entrance into the Canadian marketplace on Tuesday, with company president Caroline Hay announcing she's ready to change things up and kick a little behind.
Cruise CEO is owned by the same parent company that owns TPI, Hay said, but they're totally separate companies.
Hay said the new venture is a "cruise-centric, specialized host agency built for travel entrepreneurs who are currently specialized in selling cruise vacations. We are Canada's first and Virtuoso's only cruise-focused host agency.
"The cruise industry continues to grow and it's time that we had that focused agency space dedicated to the cruise sellers in the Canadian market, as well as position ourselves as the cruise authority in an area of independent contractors specializing in cruise," she said.
The new company is not a one-size fits all group, Hay continued.
"We allow our CEO's to choose what is right for them, empower them to run their business as they wish, and encourage them to embrace the mindset to be the CEO of their business. Cruise sales are not an afterthought here, because they are our primary destination."
Hay said Cruise CEO is backed by top TPI officials such as Morris Chia and Zeina Gedeon, who have a combined 80-plus years in the industry. "But it's not the cruise arm of TPI. We have dedicated tools, as well as dedicated staff and support in place to best serve our CEO's."
The cruise industry is getting stronger every day, and many agents are interested in aligning themselves with a business partner that shares their cruise passion.
"When somebody joins Cruise CEO, they are granted full access to Virtuoso, and along with that comes a plethora of training, benefits, partner reach, marketing tools, all designed to continue to help sales growth. This provides us with a depth and breadth of offerings unmatched anywhere in the cruise host agency space in North America," Hay said.
Contracts with Cruise CEO are designed to ensure that each of their CEO can fully customize their own business.
"Cruise CEO empowers them to navigate and direct that business as they wish, without being locked into one-sided, exclusive, long-term contracts, but also giving the opportunity to earn top tier commissions on everything they sell," she explained.
Top benefits include flexible contract terms, the ability for agents to set their own goals, earn top commission splits, run their own CRM, and no exclusivity requirements.
Hay said Cruise CEO members will get "the flexibility they want and the income they're entitled to."
Cruise CEO will pay up to 100% commission on their key partners. Primary partners include Royal Caribbean group, Norwegian group, AmaWaterways, Uniworld and Hurtigruten, Hay said.
Agents who join Cruise CEO will enjoy weekly partner training, monthly town halls, quarterly workshops and an annual CEO's@Sea conference in June of next year. Technology tools include cruise book platforms, real time sales and commission tracking and other benefits.
"For many years cruise-focused travel advisors have been left with what we like to refer to as commission crumbs," she said. "We challenged ourselves to change that model. There are no commission crumbs to be found at Cruise CEO. We only serve the full cake."
Topics From This Article to Explore
