Travel agents were vital to Royal Caribbean’s big 2017

“‘Tis the season for appreciation,” said a Royal Caribbean International ad before the holidays.

And even beyond the holidays, it is the season for appreciation at 1050 Caribbean Way. In a gesture becoming the fashion in corporate America, Royal Caribbean has just granted its employees an extra reward as a celebratory gesture after achieving a cherished 2017 financial goal.

Royal’s 66,000 employees will get a collective $80 million stock bonus, paid out over the next three years, in recognition for their part in Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. making its “Double-Double” goal set out in 2014.

The “Double-Double” was formulated three years ago as an engine to focus Royal Caribbean’s energies on maximizing the financial rewards of its innovations and efficiencies.

Its design was calculated to appeal to Wall Street and the investment community. The goal was to double RCCL’s earnings per share in three years, and at the same time advance the company’s return on invested capital to double-digit territory, as it did in 2017.

RCCL’s 10.5% return on invested capital puts it in the mainstream of such returns in corporate America, according to Royal. It is noteworthy that a company as profitable as RCCL is only average when it comes to shareholder return.

The employees were instrumental in getting RCCL across the finish line of the Double-Double. There was no guarantee that management would recognize their contribution, but it did. Each employee will be, on average, $1,200 richer as a result.

There is another group that deserves some recognition, and perhaps some reward, for helping RCCL management achieve the Double-Double: Travel agents.

Although not direct employees of the company, agents work hard to promote RCCL’s financial success, even as they further their own financial success. It would not be possible for RCCL to double earnings and breach the double-digit ROI threshold without them.

Asked if there were any plans to work agents into the Double-Double celebration, an RCCL spokesman said agents are already rewarded beyond their base earnings through back-end overrides and bonus commission on select sailings.

It may not be possible for RCCL to provide agents the same level of financial reward, or the same type of reward as for employees. But there are endless ways to give travel agents tangible compensation for their share in the Double-Double.

For RCCL, 2017 was a vintage year and finding a way to commemorate that with agents would pay dividends long into the future.