“This economic environment is unprecedented, and our travel agent partners need our unprecedented support,” said Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales for Royal Caribbean International, in a statement. “Like everyone, they are feeling the pain, and we need to help them through this.”

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Do You ZamZuu?

Last Tuesday I posted about Royal Caribbean’s troubles concerning their second quarter earnings. Some major changes are going on right now down in Miami in attempts to right a sinking ship. Of course we found out that the layoffs have begun, with 400 jobs being eliminated. Something else was posted in Travel Weekly last week, which I had scheduled to post, but due to other events, it’s been bumped and a little more information added for today.

If you recall, Royal Caribbean announced that they will be giving the “Royal Shaft” to some 472 Agencies by upping the commission threshold, in some cases doubling the threshold starting in 2009.

After the result of a 34% decline over 2007 numbers, it appears that Royal Caribbean has either done an about face, or Vicki Freed simply got tired of the cries and whining by those pesky Traditional Travel Agents who do tend to be rather boisterous. (As we’ve come to know all too well.)

I have to hand it to Vicki; she’s ALWAYS handled things very well and is the ultimate professional. I love her quote about this new gray area concerning exceptions and tweaks depending on how loud these agents were.

“All along, when agents were emailing me or calling me after our initial announcement, we were customizing our 2009 commission deals, and sometimes giving agents more time to reach the new levels, to ‘fit’ the circumstances”

To be fair, I’d be upset too if a cruise line increased my threshold some 36% to 76%. Royal Caribbean told these Agencies back in October that they were going to support THEM by terminating the growing competition that keeps getting bigger and bigger no mater what they do to try to curb it’s growth.

So, with Royal Caribbean in dire need of support right now, it’s not surprising that there’s been some “special arrangements” made concerning the commission tiers announced just a few months back.

At this point in time, I could really care less which side you want to pick here. You could side with this notion that Royal Caribbean is backpedaling due to financial reasons, or you could side with how the Agent community loves to cry so loudly that they just gave in. Either choice is fine; because the water just keeps getting churned up the further away we get from last October.

It’s clear that the Suppliers in this industry need help and support, not the bickering and whining that I see all over the internet. A few Agents clearly have way too much time on their hands, and if they don’t buckle down and get to work soon, some suppliers won’t make this crunch they are experiencing right now.

We’ve already seen what it’s done to Royal Caribbean, and news of Dynamic Leisure ceasing operations was also reported in Travel Weekly. While I have not seen anything about this in the trades as of yet, YTB’s very own Travel Compass, (you know the one, it’s that “Travel Newsletter” we get) reported the Rockwell Tours has also decided to close its doors, effective last Friday.

On a side note, and I’m guessing it’s alright to mention this now since Rockwell’s web site is already down and not accepting any further bookings, I noticed while doing my Newsletter this weekend and after attaching a link to the notice sent out from Rockwell something very strange at the bottom of the page.

“All Travel Agency commissions due will be paid by Rockwell Tours as per the normal schedule, that being upon completion of customer travel.”

So while we’ve been told by the Agent Community that YTB is holding our commissions, we find that at least one supplier pays just like YTB says they do, upon completion of the customer travel.

Yep…the truth always has a way of coming to light.

But I digress. Not everyone in the Agent community is obsessed with spinning things, and there ARE organizations who are stepping up to the plate and understand the real issues at hand. ARTA has decided to postpone its launch of their special ID cards in an effort to actually help suppliers in this crunch. It’s been reported that TRIP has advised its key marketing and sales personnel to focus on sales.

“The industry has been clear that a new identification program is sorely needed, but with the current oil crisis, its direct impact on routes and lift changes to destinations, and a significant downturn in business travel, suppliers from all sectors of the industry have indicated that they must let there issues overshadow others at this time.”

Good for them. I just wish everyone would focus on the task at hand.

After all, we ARE Professionals, and can sell this product better than anyone else. (Right?)

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Do You ZamZuu?

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you probably know by now that I believe that the truth always has a way of coming to light, and two, I never like any type of speculation. You also know that Ronda and I love to cruise, and we got started with YTB because we’ve been telling people for years that a cruise is the best vacation money could buy.

Back when Vicki Freed jumped ship over to Royal Caribbeanit was speculated that “They [Carnival] have a great reservations center and have amassed a huge database of past cruisers on Carnival–and their other brands! The time is right to regain some of the “lost” revenue and go net.”

Now that Carnivals Q2 Earning Report are out showing sales up 17 percent to $3.38 billion from $2.9 billion. But higher fuel prices cost the company 19 cents per share in the latest quarter profits are considered flat. Carnival paid $530 per metric ton to feed its fleet, up from $333 per metric ton last year.

Never the less, Travel Weekly just came out with a report this morning which attributes this gain to “Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Gerry Cahill and his team for deciding to sell more cruises through the travel agent channel. The result has been decreased general and administrative expenses and improved yields.” after Gerry Cahill was named CEO,

So there you have it. Travel Agents are actually saving Carnival money and this notion of “lost” revenue is nothing more than a pipe dream. I’d like to further add that YTB is probably one of the biggest leaders in saving Carnival this money since there is ZERO money spent in Co-Op advertising and support. YTB takes nothing away from Carnival and only pays out what we on our own PRODUCE for them. And since YTB has Pinnacle Awards dating back the last three years, you can be assured that YTB does a significant amount of revenue with Carnival.

So while we have those who speculated that a “bean counter” would go direct we instead find that “Gerry and his team … have really revaluated the [direct sales] program, and the fact is that they have significantly reduced the business from that program,” Arison said. “The result is and will be, at least for the time being, less direct business.”

“The travel agent distribution system has been an effective and efficient distribution system for this company for 35 years, and it got us to where we are,” Arison said. “We clearly believe that we need to continue to support them. They have shown this year that they can give us the yield improvements we need to overcome these higher fuel costs.”

The “other” forecast we were told by those that like to speculate about how much they know about the industry was that “she [Vicki Freed] needs to move to a company that does support travel agents–Royal Caribbean!”

We already know how Royal Caribbean handled this by giving it’s Agents “The Royal Shaft” and upping their commission threshold earlier in the month while at the same time the stock is hitting new 52 week lows and current Analysts are not as confident about Royal Caribbean’s earnings.

I don’t know about you, but I have to wonder with all the new Genesis Class ships Royal Caribbean has in the works, the largest ships in the world, how they’re going to fair without someone like YTB helping them out like we are with Carnival. Not to mention that Carnival is a much better “value” for most consumers, (at least the ones I sell too) and in these economic times why pay more for a cruise?

Looks to me like the new leadership at Carnival is doin’ it right yet again, first with the minimum booking requirements for FAMS, and now this report sends a message to us (YTB) being a major player with Carnival, that they appreciate the business we send their way. If you listened to the training call a couple weeks ago with Carnival’s Regional Vice President Mike Julius, you heard that 40% of our cruise business is with Carnival alone.

Make no mistake, when Carnival makes a statement about “Travel Agents”, they include YTB in this mix.

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Do You ZamZuu?

I started a huge task weeks ago when I promised John Frenaye that I would get his questions answered. ALL his questions. Over the next couple weeks due to the length of this list, I have focused on each of these questions one at a time. My goal here is not only to answer the question, but also point out why this question is even asked in the first place.

While I hoped this would be an excellent opportunity and tool for anyone with additional comments about each of the specific questions to get better clarification, I seem to have been doing an outstanding job. Very little has come from the “other side” to contradict what I have to say. The comments section to discuss each of the questions in greater detail has been lacking at best. I think they’ve learned early on in this process that documentation beats conversation any day of the week.

Dr. Dyer tells a story of how someone has lost their keys inside the house. As they are looking for their keys, the electricity goes out and it’s dark inside, making it useless to search for anything let alone keys. As they ponder what to do, they see a street light outside and the idea pops in their head that they can see with the light on. So they go outside to look for their keys.

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Do You ZamZuu?

I started a huge task last week when I promised John Frenaye that I would get his questions answered. ALL his questions. Over the next couple weeks due to the length of this list, I’m going to focus on each of these questions one at a time. My goal here is not only to answer the question, but also point out why this question is even asked in the first place.

This will also be an excellent opportunity and tool for anyone with additional comments about each of the specific questions to get better clarification. Use the comments section to discuss each of the questions in greater detail. I remind you that I learned how to accomplish such a huge task from Brian Tracy and his courses, which teach that you focus on the each task one at a time, focus on the solution, break it down into manageable chunks, and before you know it, you’ve achieved your goal. (By the way…I just got an e-mail from Brian regarding a New Years Coupon to Save 20% on all his courses!)

It should be a really fun debate, and for those of you in YTB, take this information and documentation and use it. Here are the questions we have gone over thus far.

Question #1 - Why a compensation plan takes 12 pages to define?

Have you ever looked at a task and at the outset it looks really daunting? Probably the best example I can give anyone at this time is our Directors program. When someone new comes into YTB and they don’t have even their first person in the business yet, anyone would wonder…”How the heck am I going to get 500 RTA’s?” I recently took an Ultimate Goals Program written by Brain Tracy, (I’d highly recommend any of Brian Tracy’s courses by the way) and he’s about the umpteenth person who has told me to “break it down into manageable chunks”.

Last week I promised John Frenaye that I would get his questions answered. ALL his questions. If you take a look at this list you might wonder as I do, how in the world can someone come up with so many questions? That’s part of John’s design, it’s meant to overwhelm you in the hopes that so many questions will cause you to just give up, allowing him to win the argument, and also allowing his positioning and views to remain out there on the internet unanswered. I’ve seen this for years, but John happens to be very unique. He’s very intelligent, and he’s done a ton of research on the YTB business model and Multi-Level Marketing in general. Unfortunately, most of what he’s researching is how to position YTB and Multi-Level Marketing in a negative light.

Garbage in – Garbage out.

Over the next couple of days, okay maybe weeks due to the length of this list, I’m going to focus on each of these questions one at a time. My goal here is not only to answer the question, but also point out why this question is even asked in the first place. How the wording is uniquely used, or words are changed to define something entirely different from its original intent and context.

This will also be an excellent opportunity and tool for anyone with additional comments about each of the specific questions to get better clarification. Use the comments section to discuss each of the questions in greater detail. Again, back to Brian Tracy and his courses, which teach that you focus on the each task one at a time, focus on the solution, break it down into manageable chunks, and before you know it, you’ve achieved your goal.

It should be a really fun debate, and for those of you in YTB, take this information and documentation and use it.

Ready? Let’s begin.

Question #1 – Why a compensation plan takes 12 pages to define. (Giving up on this one. It just does.)

I wonder how many pages Vicki Freed is reading right now for her new position with Royal Caribbean concerning her compensation. Seriously! Do you think it might be more than 12 pages?

There appears to be a real fascination with the YTB compensation plan, (which everyone will clearly see in later issues) and while it appears that each of these pages are loaded with dollar signs, and ways to make money, it begs the question of what defines 12 pages.

The first page being a cover, and the last page being blank, we are already down to 10 pages of “defining our compensation”. Of the remaining 10 pages that should therefore cover “compensation” actually talk about the YTB Team Structure, that being definitions of First Team, Power Team, Dream Team and Directors Program. In addition, while I would certainly consider Group Health and Life Insurance compensation, I do not believe this type of benefit would even be recognized by most who oppose our model. (MLM’s simply don’t offer that type of “compensation” or benefit.) The last three pages, (excluding the blank page of course) defines our
UCC-1 Financing statement, filed with both the State of Illinois and New Jersey which documents our Bill of Rights, established to protect those of us who have partnered with YourTravelBiz.com.

If you are counting with me that leaves the middle of page 4 which starts with “Direct Sales Commission”, page 5 which covers Power Team and Dream Team Sales, and we finish with page 6 which cover all the Leadership Bonuses which cover $1000 and $10,000 bonuses.

I would also include our Directors compensation on page 7, but I’m sure no one would be interested in learning how to make and extra $2000 to $8000 in extra guaranteed income per month. In case anyone wants to consider an extra $8000 a month in extra income, we can therefore complete our “compensation package” down from 12 pages to just 3 ½ pages.

While John has “given up”, I would advise that you do not. The YTB Team Structure & Copyrighted Compensation Plan is an essential part in helping anyone in making an informed, educated decision about the YTB pay plan and business model. For most of you who are with larger corporations such as BellSouth, IBM, Sprint, or Microsoft, 12 pages is a simple read compared to the hundreds of pages of policies and procedures with these companies. (Right Vicki?)

As to why they do and we don’t? It just does. ;-P

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RTA #24635

I’ve been contemplating and also doing some reading over the weekend concerning Vicki Freed’s stunning move from Carnival over to Royal Caribbean. There really hasn’t been all that much that I can find concerning the subject at this time, which isn’t surprising since this news came late Friday afternoon and most of the world is spending time doing something else on the weekend. I’ve always noticed a big drop in readership during the weekend, Saturday’s more so than Sunday, so it’s not surprising that there isn’t much out there right now. Besides, it’s Championship Sunday!

Dahhh!

To say that this move from #1 Carnival to #2 Royal Caribbean by Vicki isn’t news however couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s a real shocker to most, (including me) and the few comments and posts I’ve seen have people stunned. Everyone who’s been in this industry for some time, or is passionate about the cruising industry certainly knew that Royal Caribbean was looking for a new Sr. VP of Sales after moving Lisa Bauer over to Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations. Vicki Freed however, a fixture with Carnival for 29 years, was probably the LAST person anyone would have predicted to fill this void. It came as a big surprise to just about everyone, most of all Carnival.

I saw one quote that expressed very well what Carnival has done in the cruise industry. “Carnival basically took the formality out of cruising, and made it available to the masses. They revolutionized an industry, all from very humble beginnings as the underdog. It was history in the making and Freed was a part of it.” and someone else continued with “She is as much a part of Carnival as Ted Arison, Bob Dickinson, Micky Arison, Maurice Zarmati, Roger Blum, Roberta Jacoby, Cherie Weinstein, and Meshulam Zonis. These individuals were truly the “rat pack” of Carnival Cruise Lines.”

This is BIG – BIG news in the industry.

Some Industry Insiders have already posted predictions, speculating, or forecasting what all this could mean for the Cruise Industry as a whole. I’ve posted about my belief in “predictions” or speculation recently and based on this move of Vicki’s being such a stunning move only adds validity to my belief that no one can accurately predict the future. Especially in this industry! What you need to understand about people who make predictions like this is that this speculation is based on what they “want” to happen, not necessarily “believe” will happen. It’s anyone’s guess, both positive or negative at this stage of the game, (Vicki doesn’t move into her new digs officially until Tuesday) and to make any assumption about what Vicki, Carnival, or Royal Caribbean will do without being Vicki, Carnival, or Royal Caribbean is foolish.

With the changing of the guard at Carnival with CEO Bob Dickinson now retired after 35 years, and new CEO, Gerry Cahill now “in” the time was right for Vicki to make this move. It’s no secret that Vicki is both widely admired and loved by just about everyone in the industry. Like Lisa Bauer being “The Face” of Royal Caribbean back in October, Vicki Freed was “The Face” of Carnival for 29 years. While researching for this post, I found that many thought Vicki was upset about NOT being named CEO and President. After all she’s the one who’s been driving sales with Carnival for years. Some “speculated” that she would be the next obvious choice to move into Dickinson’s position once he retired. But instead, Vicki was overlooked and the responsibility fell to CFO, Gerry Cahill.

I laughed at this comment: “Hell hath no furry, like a woman scorned. Can’t necessarily say I blame her after putting in 29 years. I’ll bet some of the higher ups at Carnival are kicking their collective butts right now.”

Cahill being a finance guy, (bean counter?) admitted to knowing very little about the Travel MLM and “card mill” issues that have been debated so heavily in the industry in recent months. When I was first introduced to Cahill as CEO and President back in November he was asked point blank about his understanding of “card mills” and if he would follow Royal Caribbean’s lead in terminating Carnivals relationship with, and I quote “questionable travel selling organizations”. Cahill answered “I have no understanding of what the distinction Royal Caribbean is making.” and he did emphasize he wanted to