LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Dear Travel Advisor,

Successful advisors are increasingly trying to both expand their client base and sell

different types of vacations to their most loyal customers. One of those types of

vacations, which has traditionally been the most difficult to market to clients who

haven’t experienced it yet, is the cruise vacation.

And while COVID-19 has, perhaps, made that sell that much more difficult, the team

at Travel Market Report wanted to do what we could to help answer the questions

of what is the best strategy for advisors to use in order to successfully convert land

vacationers into cruise clients. To do so, we queried over 800 advisors on what they

found was their best strategy, including what destinations proved most attractive and

what the best sales strategies were. The result was this Outlook on New Cruisers.

The survey, which we sent out to our readers before COVID-19 really started to

impact the industry, should provide the insight and the knowledge necessary for

advisors to succeed with those clients who haven’t been brought into the cruise

market just yet. While COVID-19 has certainly changed the landscape, we believe

that advisors can still learn from what their colleagues have said about how they’ve

successfully converted land vacationers into ocean goers. New methods will be

born out of the next few months, but as the demand for cruising roars back post-

pandemic, it’s imperative that advisors have their sales processes down, and know

how to target that first-time cruiser.

The bottom line is that, though the conversions could prove more difficult than ever,

once advisors are able to make the initial sales, they’ll gain loyal repeat customers

and will be able to introduce them to a growing world of cruise offerings. As always,

we want to thank those who took the time to complete our survey, as well as our

sponsor, Royal Caribbean Group. We truly hope that this will help advisors gain

knowledge and a bedrock of skills that can benefit them now, as the industry readies

itself for the post-COVID demand, and in the future.

Sincerely,

Anne Marie Moebes

Publisher

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