Cruise CEOs stress need for agent support

FORT LAUDERDALE — The CEOs of Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. took to the stage here last week, using Travel Weekly’s CruiseWorld as a platform for delivering a crucial message to travel professionals: In a nutshell, “We need you.”

Wednesday’s keynote speaker was Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald, who told an audience of travel sellers and suppliers that consumer attitudes toward Carnival Cruise Lines had brightened 60% since hitting a nadir in May.

“So we’ve got good brand recovery attitudinally, and behaviors follow,” he said.

Donald emphasized that agents are vital to Carnival’s brand recovery. “We need our travel professionals’ support,” he said.

Travel professionals in attendance at CruiseWorld, held at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, listened attentively. Later, at a reception at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina, the buzz was praise for Donald’s style and forthright presence.

Each day featured a different theme for educational tracks, breakout sessions and keynotes. Some sessions were devoted to product education; others, such as a session on how to “kick-start” a career selling cruises, were panel discussions featuring cruise sales executives and agents. A trade show highlighted Day 2; ship inspections were offered at the beginning and end of the conference.

Other events included the Think Tank, a CruiseWorld staple, and Travel Weekly’s monthly Twitter chat that ran concurrently with the panel “Travel: An Addictive Industry.”

And each day was keynoted by the CEO of one of the three top cruise companies: Donald, RCCL CEO Richard Fain and Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan.

Fain, who spoke on Thursday, the day themed to “shopping for your business,” treated conference-goers to a lighthearted parable about clothes shopping with his youngest daughter.

“We went to buy a dress,” Fain said, pausing occasionally for comedic effect. “And we got there, and there was a sales lady who helped us. And it was incredibly reassuring to have someone who knew what she was talking about.”

The same holds true for cruise shoppers, Fain said: “Everybody knows what vacations are, but people really do need to be guided.” And the people to guide them, he said, are travel professionals.

In a question-and-answer session, Travel Weekly Editor in Chief Arnie Weissmann asked Fain if new tonnage was on the horizon at Azamara Club Cruises. Fain said the product was more than the hardware but added that bookings have been “just sterling” this year and if the opportunity for expansion arose, no one would be happier than he or Azamara CEO Larry Pimentel.

Fain said agents were in the catbird’s seat, as suppliers one-up each other trying to show their respect and loyalty to the channel.

“The fact that so many of us are making a real effort to reach out to you should be a testament to all of you that we as an industry do get it,” Fain said.

Donald’s keynote was his first public appearance before a trade audience, and he made a point of directly addressing concerns of travel agents.

“I’ve spent these last few months listening,” he said. “And what I’ve come to know is this: Our industry, even though we’ve sailed through some rough waters together, has so much going right and so much opportunity.”

Carnival Cruise Lines has been wooing agents since July with its Carnival Conversations program. “To the extent those conversations helped more travel professionals engage with us, it is absolutely necessary,” Donald said.

In addition to weekly consumer surveys, he said that Carnival also gauges travel agent attitudes toward the cruise line. “We’ve seen good movement there,” he said. “We know we have more work to do.”

He told of his background growing up in then-segregated New Orleans: “I was rich in having a wonderful, caring set of parents who, although they did not have money, had determination, and they had determination to see me and my siblings succeed.”

Donald is transitioning from the listen-only mode he adopted after being named CEO, to putting his own stamp on things. Last week, the company announced a series of executive changes that included aligning Princess Cruises and Holland America Line in a joint operating group.

But in his 10-minute, on-stage interview with Weissmann, Donald downplayed talk of centralization and consolidation of the two brands.

“That’s not what it’s about at all,” he said. Putting “Holland America” in the group name, he said, was a way to get a brand mention every time the media references it.

Saying the two lines appeal to different psychologies, he added, “If you were in a port where both ships disembarked, you could stand on the street and pretty much say, “[That one’s] Princess, [that one’s] Holland America. Because they are different.”