I can’t think of a better way to get going again after an extended weekend like we just had than hosting a “Travel Party”. I love weeks like this. Everyone is longing for more vacation time and looking to get back into that relaxation mode. The only difference I can see is possibly replacing “turkey” with “lobster” when it comes to stuffing ourselves. Short breaks like this, spending time with family, (mine who by the way are still here) and getting a break from traffic, time clocks, and office politics remind people how much they need a vacation. I love the sparkle in people’s eyes when the subject of travel or vacations comes up. It never ceases to amaze me how this subject is so universally loved by everyone. I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s told me;

You know, I’ve tried one of those vacations once…HATED it!

No, bringing up the subject of vacations is something everyone loves to talk about, and for some, you can’t get a word in edge wise. Not a big problem, but some do tend to go on and on about how much they just LOVE the destination they came from or the destination they’re looking to head to next. With the economy looming over everyone’s head these days both agencies and suppliers are looking for that edge to help increase both visibility and sales.

This week, both YTB and Carnival appear to have that answer. Apparently, Carnival was pleased with the outcome of last years 24 Hour Cruise Event and has come to YTB again to help boost last minute year end sales to help both our bottom lines. Back in October, CLIA held its annual “World’s Largest Cruise Night”, which in years past has produced fourth quarter sales for both agencies and cruise lines. Last year the month long promotion for CLIA produced some 17,852 cruise bookings, however I’ve yet to see any hard numbers on this year’s event. YTB’s own cruise sale last November produced 12,000 passenger bookings. (Although, critics like to cut the number of “passengers” in half.)

This Tuesday, December 2 at 7:00 p.m. in each time zone, YTB will host the World’s Largest Travel Party in several cities around the country.  All locations are teaming together to host one huge event. The cities include:

• Atlanta, GA
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas, TX
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Houston, TX
• Kansas City, MO
• Miami, FL
• New York, NY
• Orange County, CA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Reno, NV
• Richmond, VA
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• St. Louis, MO
• Tampa, FL

At each location, door prizes will include one free cruise certificate (for guests only) and five tickets to YTB’s 2009 National Convention for Reps or Travel Site Owners. Rooms at the live venues will have a party atmosphere with round tables, fun music, snacks, and drinks. (No alcoholic beverages.) The Cruise giveaways for two are for guests only, and you must be present to win. There will be a short video entitled “Cruising, the Best Vacation Value” followed by a live feed from the YTB Home Office via streaming video. After the presentation a flyer with the December 4th Sail-a-thon Cruise Specials will be handed out in addition to the free cruise drawing for each city.

On Thursday, December 4th, there will be a live webcast from 5 -10:00 pm Central from the YTB Headquarters in Wood River, Illinois. Phones will be open all day till Midnight Central Standard Time as well.

RTA’s have an opportunity to invite friends and family over for this Carnival Cruise Night on December 4th to watch Coach, Kim, and Scott, along with many guests, through a live webcast sales event. There will be dozens of cruise specials and a live team ready to take reservations. Travel customers can also choose from 18 different Gift Certificate options available for online purchase through December 31, 2008. Certificates are valid for a 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8 day Fall Cruise for Two and most include all Government Taxes, Fees and Gratuities. ALL certificates are upgradeable if desired and are valid for up to 18 months. Upgrades are never a problem at the time of booking, simply pay the difference.

It’s nice to see Carnival and YTB teaming up again in this way. I’m not aware of any other supplier who teams with a single agency such as this, but then again, no other single agency has the potential to reach as many customers at one time as YTB does. It’s very unique to our model and our company.

It’s all in an effort to “Be Number 1 with The Number 1!”

Happy Sailing!

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The final numbers for the Carnival One Day Sale were announced by YTB yesterday afternoon. While I had seen, and wanted to post about this release yesterday, I also was curious to see how some of our “Travel Agents” would respond to the news, and what kind of “spin” they would have before I started to write. To their credit, the response is admirable and while I certainly don’t believe YTB shocked the industry, we certainly did better than anyone expected when combined with the short notice and the assumption that we’re not a “Travel Company” per say, but a “Marketing Company” in their view.

On November 8th, YTB booked more than 12,000 cruise passengers through gift certificates, individual, and group cruises. If you recall the Cruise Lines International Association said its Oct. 17 World’s Largest Cruise Night (WLCN) is expected to generate 17,852 bookings.

Based on what we now know about the One Day Sale, I’m going to direct you to John Frenaye’s response and perception concerning the take on YTB’s One Day Sale and how it relates to CLIA’s Worlds Largest Cruise Night. It happens to be consistent with the mindset and reasoning concerning our company, and John, to his credit, happens to be rather professional, and does provide documentation in an attempt to support his views. In addition, John’s perception of who we are and what we do illustrates perfectly what so many of our opposition keep telling people about YTB regarding how little Travel is sold through our RTA’s. These One Day Sales give us the best example that I can recall to actually compare apples to apples by using each of the numbers generated by the “One Day Sales”.

John writes:

“Based on the 130,000 Referring Travel Agents that participated, all things being equal, each would have earned 60% of the YTB commission or about $1.77 per Referring Travel Agent.”

John later states:

“So, 4,000 traditional agents produce 34,654 bookings (probably 70,000 passengers) resulting in sales of $43 million and commissions of $5.8million. This seems a bit more successful than 130,000 agents producing 6,000 bookings, resulting in sales of $2.4 million and commissions of $384,000.”

There are several problems with the statements above.

Two words mysteriously disappeared between what is actually reported in Modern Agent and what John is trying to convey. The report states 4,000 participating agents “and agencies”. In addition, the 34,654 and $43 Million being reported was not generated in one day, but between Oct. 15-31. The “One Day” or Oct. 17 World’s Largest Cruise Night (WLCN) is expected to generate 17,852 bookings, which translate into an estimated $22.3 million in sales and more than $3 million in travel agency commissions.

I know the opposition would like to lead you to believe that all 130,000 RTA’s participated in the One Day Sale to help the cause of YTB. If we are to assume that all 130,000 participated then we must also assume the entire Travel Agent Community participated in CLIA’s World’s Largest Cruise Night. I did some research, and found more than 20,000 ARC-accredited Travel Agency locations and Corporate Travel Departments. Since our opposition assumes that all YTB RTA’s participated in the One Day Sale, can we therefore assume that all Agencies and Agents participated in CLIA’s World’s Largest Cruise Night? Liberty Travel has 200 storefront locations, with 8 – 20 Agents per location, that’s a possible 4000 Agents from just one Agency. Just 10 Agents per Agency would consist of 200,000 Travel Agents overall.

Of course we couldn’t average everyone in the Industry overall, and I can just see the comments listed below now.

• Not all ARC Agencies participated.
• Not all Travel Agents sell cruises, some just do tours, some just do corporate, some just focus on all-inclusive vacations.
• Not all Travel Agents are CLIA certified and may not have known about the Cruise Night.
• You can’t assume that every Agency has a minimum of 10 Agents working for them, some are Independent.
• We only booked a few on that very night, but we did book some between Oct. 15-31.
• You can’t lump the entire Travel Industry together and divide it like that.

Oh…but of course I could, and I just did. The average Travel Agent will make just $11.50 in commission for their efforts in CLIA’s World’s Largest Cruise Night.

That’s all things being equal folks, but as you can clearly see, we don’t play by the same set of rules as everyone else. And I promise you, there will be people who will take John’s math and assumptions as fact and leave it at that. They don’t realize that the math actually used doubles (34,654 not 17,852) CLIA’s one day sales total, and divides in half YTB’s numbers from 12,000 to only 6000 and we are to believe that’s “all things being equal”.

Go figure.

In closing, I don’t mean to pick on John specifically. Like YTB, he just happens to be the most vocal of all the Traditional Travel Agents out there. With his industry connections in the media, he is far more capable than anyone in getting his views and opinions published in the press to promote his views. I will tell you that while John and I are on opposite sides of the fence concerning what is considered beneficial in our industry, we have formed a mutual appreciation for our difference of opinion. He has made very valid arguments in the past that I not only agree with but support. His perception of what YTB has actually accomplished with our successful one-day cruise sales event in November however happens to miss the mark.

For those of us who actually participated in YTB’s One Day Sale, I say kudos to you for your effort and responsibility in helping YTB in their efforts to let the industry know that we have stood up and want to be counted in the same fashion as everyone else in this industry. What we book we keep as our own. What is booked by any other Agent or Agency in this industry is not of our concern or part of our commissions earned. All things being equal, we are independent and we book travel just like anyone else.

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The debate over which business model is more profitable for cruise lines, and which is better suited for customers has certainly escalated in recent weeks. So much so, both John Frenaye and I have gotten the attention of George Dooley, Senior Editor of Travel Trade with a fair and objective review of what each of us are trying to do to suggest much needed changes.

On Friday I documented that CLIA (Cruise Line Industry Association) created 17,852 bookings on October 17th, which translate into an estimated $22.3 million in sales and more than $3 million in travel agency commissions. An entire industry, consisting of 20,790 agencies and 24 Cruise Lines with a combined 180 ships generated this number from my understanding. While Liberty Travel was one of the apparent leaders of this “sale”, they certainly didn’t leverage with CLIA in their efforts. Others, like Cruise Planners, did look as if they partnered with what CLIA and potentially capitalized with this Association and name.

If your scratching your head like I was how an entire industry with a month long promotion could possibly only generate $22.3 in sales in one day, I’ve been researching this a little over the weekend. If you recall,Vicki Freed had documented in an article released on Friday, “I know the argument may be that an average sales-volume-per-member may not be that meaningful,” she wrote. “But, truthfully, we have many of models in our database — including traditional — that are not solid producers. In fact 60 percent of our travel agencies produce less than 10 guests per year.” While I’m not certain exactly what percentage does or does not support the industry, I would venture that the majority feel the way Joyce does when she commented “Why would we support you on cruise night when you don’t support us? You and Carnival are in bed with the MLM’s. Well too bad Vicki, I ain’t selling Carnival till you support the real travel agents.” Of course we all know by this point that Royal Caribbean DOES support “real travel agents”.

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