3Qs for Cruise Month: Kate Murphy, Wings Travel Group

In honor of National Plan a Cruise Month, TMR is interviewing executives from across the travel industry.

Today’s interview is with Kate Murphy, the president of Wings Travel Group.

What do you plan to do differently in 2016 than you did in the past?
We are trying to sell more river cruises because the commissions are better, and so river cruises are more lucrative. Selling mass market cruises is barely worth the amount of time we have to spend on it.

What do you wish the cruise industry better understood about working with travel agents?
I wish the cruise lines understood that we often make more money selling all-inclusive land vacations than we do selling cruises.

I wish they understood how valuable our time is and that we can be their greatest advocates and best salespeople, but we need to be better compensated. My staff is made up of highly trained and expert salespeople, and yet we are not compensated for the ancillary things we sell.

What advice do you have for other agents trying to sell cruises?
Learn, learn, and learn some more. These are big ships and they are very complicated. But if you put the right person on the right ship, you’re going to have very happy clients.