“I’ve been in travel for nine years and this is the busiest January I’ve had; every day there’s a new lead from social media,” says Megan Amelio at Bridie Travel in Chicago. “Literally, every day there’s a new post on our local Facebook groups and Google looking for a travel advisor.”
“It’s January 17, and I’ve already booked what I booked in all of January 2023, and I’m nowhere near done,” says Cheri Smith. “I can hardly keep up with the requests.”
They are not alone. The wintery blasts, plus the growing acceptance of travel advisors and the hype around Icon of the Seas have left a wave of eager-to-travel customers in their wake, many say. New strategies are needed, though, to keep them coming to—and booking with—you. And to handle the flow without burning out.
For Jamie Margolis Ross, for example, “Wave Season is going fantastic” at Moms at Sea Travel—with customers booking not just for Q1 but into 2025, and sales up more than 40% over last year. “We’re seeing two types of clients: People looking for last minute trips because it’s 20 degrees out and they realize they have nothing planned for Spring Break, and lots of consumers booking much further out because they want to make sure they get the best pricing. The cruise lines are retraining customers by offering the lowest rates at opening and high prices close in—a really smart idea. The inventory is there for winter 2024, but the pricing is a big problem.”
In her family-travel market, when a lead comes in, “it’s really important for advisors to qualify the client and make that connection, and make it quickly, because people really do book with you on the sheer fact that they like you—that ‘Cheryl has kids the same age as mine and loves dogs and I really like her, so I want to book with her.’ So, use everything in your toolbox, find those common grounds and make those connections,” she suggests.
And no matter how busy you are, focus on getting quotes out in a timely manner; “it’s the superpower that differentiates a travel advisor from booking directly,” Ross says. Don’t limit yourself in what you are selling—if they reach out to look at one supplier, throw in an option for another.
“People who have always been loyal to one brand are looking around now, opening up to another brand or a different resort,” she says. “A really big strength of a good travel advisor is the ability to offer more, so even if they don’t ask, throw in a junior suite option, why not? Don’t ask about budget on the front end; you never know the cards someone is holding, and sometimes those budgets change when they envision that amazing cruise. Flexibility is the name of the game for the consumer. If they want a suite experience and someone is pricing them out, consider another supplier. We get so busy we get the urge to crank it out. But just take that moment to connect with the guest.”
A Stronger Season
Ross attributes the strong 2024 Wave Season to a number of factors: more people traveling, more openness to working with a travel advisor, more acceptance of professionals working from home, more interest in supporting small businesses. And Millennials are more accustomed to paying for support services.
“We have a lot of new customers and new to cruise—we’re in a big growth phase—but we’re also getting a lot of repeats and referrals. Plus, our agency is very heavy Royal Caribbean—and the Icon wave is giving a boost to the cruise industry as a whole. My seven-year-old son is being served Icon commercials on YouTube,” she says. “For that to hit during Wave Season has put cruising on a lot of people’s minds. When Icon opened for sales, my tiny, little brand-new, year-old agency, with three agents, was in the Top 10 in the country for Icon sales. We didn’t even talk about it that much with clients—and, within 48 hours, we booked 250 guests and $350,000.”
At KHM Travel Group, meanwhile, supplier relations manager Charlie Thompson calls this “an interesting Wave Season.” Where last year Wave started in October or November for 2023/24 sailings through July, this year “the cruise lines are all in this competitive set and there’s a lot of inventory to book further out. The booking window has expanded beyond 120 days, and we are getting an influx of bookings being made now for October, November, December 2024 and into 2025.”
Since the pandemic, Thompson says, cruise prices have been steadily rising—and “customers are realizing for the first time in my experience that the cost is fixed to what it is today. If they book it now, it will be ‘cheaper’—and that’s changing the consumer attitude.”
On the land side, meanwhile, Europe sales are “down in passenger volume but significantly up in revenue” as customers move to more luxury products. “A traditional all-inclusive or Haven customer may be moving to Regent; that luxury business is growing very rapidly,” Thompson says.
KHM Travel Group, too, is having its best year ever, with more than 60% of its 2024 goal already on the books—plus about 30% of January sales on the books for 2025.
Thompson’s biggest tip for travel advisors? Be prepared for the coming election year. “Every year around the election something happens to disrupt travel,” he says. “So, make sure you offer travel insurance to every customer, and have it yourself if you are traveling.”
At Windstar Cruises, meanwhile, Janet Bava has this advice for travel advisors: “Stay focused! It’s easy to get distracted by all the offers being thrown at you, but only promote the suppliers you want to sell. Don’t promote the offer itself, or you are just attracting people looking for a good deal rather than a client for life. Let them know you have exclusive deals they can’t get anywhere else—build your personal brand and why they should work with you.”
For many, though, no tips are needed this year—and a little marketing seems to go a long way. Virginia DeDad’s Wave Season has started with a bang, with FIT itineraries, family groups and “lots of Italy.” At Guyer Travel, “Wave Season is my favorite chaotic season,” says Dillon Guyer; this year he’s seeing an influx of return business from a group of 165 he took on MSC in 2023.
Lisa Rossmeissl is seeing strong Australia business; while she doesn’t sell a lot of cruise, she is putting up one cruise post every day on social media to see how that works out. Diane Frisch is selling a lot of cabins on an AMA Danube cruise where she had group space, and “a few Europe land trips, usually Italy, every week.”
Megan Amelio is “super busy,” with “the most destination wedding and honeymoon leads coming through this month in all my nine years of selling travel.” Gregg Welpe had a new client just walk in the door and drop $33,00 for six cabins on Carnival and a CIE trip to Scotland and Ireland; “BAM, that is how I like to start the new year,” he says.
After promoting Wave Season in her newsletter and social media, Sharon Strelzer is seeing demand for Antarctica sailings, where the Bridge fly/fly program is sparking interest among her clients. Becki Bozart “packed the room” for her cruise night on Alaska and now is getting “a couple of requests a day. Wave Season, if I allowed it, would cause me to work 24 hours a day. I am trying to triage and keep some sort of boundaries.”
With 100% of her 2024 sales goal already on the books, Marcie Muensterman is taking those boundaries a step further, and taking the month of January off altogether. “I enjoy getting myself organized and designing the rest of my year, so I take a handful of clients for January travel and no new people until February,” she says. “It’s been incredibly relaxing.”
That’s the perfect plan, agrees Rita Perez, owner of Rita Ventures and host of the Strategic Travel Entrepreneur podcast. She believes that, ideally, planning for Wave Season should begin in October, and January should be dedicated to planning for the year ahead. “For me, January is a hybernation month to look back a little bit, and then I go gung ho in February,” she says.
Her advice? Do an overview of your systems; update your calendar and block out time so when the business really gets going in February you are not overwhelmed and working 24×7. Set boundaries. “You have to have the confidence that the right people are going to follow your rules and follow your process—and those that don’t, you don’t want anyway.”
Then refresh your intake forms. “If you can get some good, clear information on what people are looking for and how that aligns with your specialties, you can filter out who’s right and who’s wrong for you. It can be as simple as ‘my fee is X and it covers X, Y, and Z,’ so people know they can’t ask 50 things whenever they want. Or, if you do want to provide that kind of service, make sure you are compensated accordingly.”
Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.