It’s not often you get to spend a week at sea with two of the best cruise executives in the industry. Of course, I took the opportunity to talk travel news with Katina Athanasiou and John Diorio during the KHM Travel Group’s Crystal Awards, sailing Celebrity Reflection in the Caribbean, and they were gracious enough to chat with me.
Ladies first. Suites are hotter than ever at Celebrity Cruises, and the line is focusing on its best customers to makes things even better there. Over the next three or four weeks the sales team will be reviewing the guest feedback about the suite experience and looking at ways to make it even better, Celebrity Cruises’ SVP, sales & services Katina Athanasiou said.
“We continue to sell suites the farthest out and at the highest rates in brand history, and so we’re really doing a deep dive on the entirety of the retreat experience to make sure we can provide the services and offerings our guests really want,” she said.
Last year Celebrity stopped offering an onboard credit to Retreat guests, after noting that most were spending it in the very last days of their cruise—an indication it wasn’t very meaningful to them. Since then the team has been holding focus groups to find out what exactly really matters to guests and provide it.
Indeed, “this is our year of elevating everything,” Athanasiou said, from food and beverage to entertainment. “We’re working closely to ensure that the things that matter to our guests are readily available across the entire ship, so you don’t have to search to find your favorite drink. And while our guests love to be active, we’ve found that you can be an active participant or an active viewer, so we are creating activities where people can participate or just watch and have fun, like live music and dance classes.”
That personalization will be reflected in the travel advisor training program as well. “We’re working right now on creating the right learning and training opportunities based on the advisor’s knowledge and comfort level within the industry, a one size fits one rather than one size fits all. We’re working to segment the advisor set and give them the information they need in the manner in which they want to receive it,” she said.
Many travel advisors don’t want to sit on webinars any more or have face to face meetings, to go through online modules that are “a bit static in nature and a bit one-directional.” The goal is to offer a program that takes into account how Celebrity’s best partners want to learn, be it live or online, one to one or in group setting, and then create learning paths based on their individual experience and learning style.
“We are indebted to our travel partners,” Athanasiou said. “And I want to be very clear, we cannot do this without you. Our trade business has increased drastically over the past several months and it’s the most wonderful feeling to see our partners in this fast-growing channel thriving. My goal is to make sure we offer the content to support you in every which way so it can continue to grow and grow and grow.”
Tech and Touch at Virgin Voyages
At Virgin Voyages, meanwhile, it’s all about the personal touch. And the technology.
Understanding that dichotomy is the key to success in 2024 and beyond—for his own team and for the travel partners who sell Virgin Voyages, says North American Sales VP John Diorio.
Just 18 months after rolling out the Let’s Go Book program, 25% of travel advisor bookings are coming in online through the dedicated URLs the system provides. “We like to say you can share that link on social media—and wake up having a booking,” he said.
(Says KHM travel advisor Susie Flores at Countdown Travels, “I absolutely love having our own booking link for Virgin Voyages! I have it on all my social media platforms and have been able to successfully book many people that way.”)
Of course it’s the personal relationships that build your business, as Diorio clearly understands. He stayed onboard for the entire seven-day Crystal Awards cruise—and will sail again later this month for the Oasis Travel Network Member Appreciation Trip in Amsterdam.
But first, the technology. “If you are doing business with us you need to leverage our technology,” Diorio says. “We give everyone a dedicated URL that you can use to book and share on social media so your customers can book themselves. It’s one of the easiest ways to start working with Virgin Voyages – and it empowers your customers to do their own research while you maintain control of the booking.”
Still, he notes, there is nothing like the one-on-one relationship building that underlies what the Virgin team and its travel advisor partners do. For him, “the challenge this time of year is that there are a lot of events, and many overseas. But for me, events like this are important. I think being out there shows how much we value partners like KHM.”
The big news from Virgin, of course, is the cancellation of Resilient Lady’s Australia season, which is being replaced with Caribbean itineraries beginning December 6, 2024.
“Rerouting Resilient Lady was a tough decision because Australians love our ships, and they love having us in the region. It’s a beloved market for our brand, and we’d definitely consider returning in the future. For now, we’re going to take the ship to San Juan. The Caribbean is a natural fit for us in the winter months and our Sailor feedback there has been incredible, too,” he said.
Among the firsts for the new Resilient Lady itineraries, which went on sale last week, are longer routes—up to 11 nights—and a new destination, Cartagena, Colombia. That will leave Virgin with three ships in the Caribbean: Resilient Lady in San Juan, Valiant Lady doing four- and five-night cruises out of Miami and Scarlet Lady sailing six and eight nights out of Miami.
And of course, the company website says, these holiday sailings will not be just another ho-hum Caribbean cruise. “Even if you’ve sailed to the Caribbean before, we guarantee you’ve never done it quite like this. Whether you’re celebrating the holiday season or ringing in 2025, there’s no better way to do it than by checking out our new ports” in Philipsburg, St. Maarten; Kingstown, St. Vincent; Cartagena, Colombia; and Roseau, Dominica.
Sailors booked on Australia cruises are being offered future cruise credits or refunds, and travel advisors will receive their full commissions, Diorio said.
Overall, he noted, 2024 is “off to an amazing start; our January business was off the charts amazing. When we look at sales year over year, we’re growing and our partners are growing with us. Our pricing has been going up, and we have no NCFs, so our First Mates are making more on commission.” Even more important is the 40% onboard rebooking rate from satisfied customers.
For its partners, Diorio said, completing the Virgin Voyages Seacademy training sets apart the advisors that really want to learn and sell Virgin, and Virgin offers a dedicated team to guide them through the program and on to the first booking. Virgin offers graduate First Mate rates on some itineraries, but with fuller ships in 2024, getting on to a fam trip is more difficult than in the past. “I encourage advisors to really build that relationship with our sales managers for when those pop up,” he said.
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.
