Sailing into Profit: Travel Advisors Consider Full-Ship Charters | Travel Research Online

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Sailing into Profit: Travel Advisors Consider Full-Ship Charters

As travel advisors headed across the Atlantic to ASTA’s River Cruise Expo this year, 100 members of Gifted Travel Network already were onsite. They had been there for a week, attending their annual symposium—which GTN hosted for the first time aboard a river cruise ship it chartered for its own use.

Indeed, interest in full-ship charters is blooming this year. Travelers are back, river cruise ships are looking for partnerships, and travel advisors are coming to see the viability—and potential profits—of renting a whole ship.

Behind the scenes, cruise companies including Norwegian Cruise Lines; Riverside Luxury Cruises, which now owns all five of the former Crystal ships; and Transcend Cruises, which will debut next year, have joined river cruise companies like AMA and Uniworld in focusing on the full-ship charter market.

At GTN, chief membership officer Sandy Saburn said the group has hosted symposia for years, teaching travel advisors how to find, market and sell two profitable pieces of travel: group business and river cruises. Now, with the headwind of the ASTA Expo behind them, they decided to use their expertise and take a chance on a full-ship charter themselves. It went so well they are doing it again next year.

“We have helped advisors do charters in the past, but this was the first time GTN did one,” Saburn told TRO. “We knew a lot of our members were interested in attending the ASTA Expo, and we had a lot of requests for group travel training. So, we decided it made sense to try a river cruise ship charter and tie it in with the Expo, ending in Budapest the day before the Expo began. We had 99 people, and next year we’ll probably have 140.”

 

GTN group in the lounge of the ship during a workshop session

 

Many advisors with whom GTN has worked have earned upward of $150,000 on a single river ship charter—even more if they are careful about expenses, Saburn said. For GTN, though, the goal was to have a successful educational event, and they were happy to just cover all their expenses involved in hosting the group, the facilitators, and the GTN staff.

For travel advisors, renting a full ship “is a great opportunity with a much higher profit potential than if you just block rooms,” she said. “Plus, you have full control over the schedule. But it does require upfront payment to lock in the contract, and once you sign you have to be able to deliver. But if you have a large enough base, it can work really well.”

Having been burned by Covid over the past couple of years, “advisors across the board are probably still a little wary, because they are not sure they have the financial wherewithal to stick their necks out,” Saburn said. Though, with training and positive feedback from those who have tried it, many are growing more confident.

As for next year, look for GTN onboard an AMAWaterways ship sailing into Amsterdam ahead of the ASTA Expo.

A Growing Trend

Many travel advisors say they are ready to give it a try. Christina Ernst, president of VIP Travel, is chartering a river cruise ship with unique Oktoberfest bands; Amy Hobbins at Journeys Unlimited Travel has chartered a ship in Croatia; Angela Hughes of Trips & Ships Luxury Travel has five yacht charters in Croatia.

“Like signing on the dotted line for your mortgage and your marriage license, it’s a little daunting, but we’ve had really terrific and successful experiences,” says Susan Kelly Costello of Kelly Cruises and Tours, who has chartered her fourth AMA river ship for this summer. “Being able to customize the itinerary and onboard experience allowed us to really own it all!”

“Join us on our private yacht sailing Croatia and Montenegro,” said the invitation that Beth Schulberg of Cruise and Travel Specialists sent to her A-list customers. “It didn’t take us long to sell out,” she reports.

Agrees Suzy Schreiner, owner of Azure Blue Vacations, who has been building her own little niche chartering yachts in Croatia, “Chartering is such a great opportunity for travel agency owners who want to advance to another level. You can do a part-charter on an AMA ship for 30 or 40 cabins, where you can make the charter unique with a wine theme, for example—and still make a higher profit and offer your clients a lower rate. Charters are an opportunity that’s relatively untapped in our industry. It’s really profitable. It’s a really great niche.”

Moving forward, even larger travel agencies and consortia are considering group charters. Internova Travel Group CEO J. D. O’Hara for example, told TRO “it’s a tremendous opportunity. There is a working capital risk but, if you are successful, there certainly is reward.” Internova did have some discussions with cruise companies about an Antarctica cruise before Covid, and “I’d like to revisit that now,” he said.

 

GTN Executive Team (from L-R): Meredith Hill, co-founder and Chief Visionary Officer; Jen Cochrane, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer; Vanessa McGovern, co-founder and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer; and Sandy Saburn, Chief Membership Officer

 

Tips of the Trade

For those considering putting a toe in the charter waters, Saburn offered up the following tips:

  • The most important thing is to plan really far in advance—at least a year, or two if possible, before the ship opens for sale to the public—to get the best availability and the best price.
  • Qualify the group carefully. When it comes to a charter, having a Pied Piper is not enough—you need a really good Pied Piper, who is closely linked to the members of the affinity group, and affinity group members who are linked to one another. Look for organizations that meet and socialize regularly and will want to travel together. If you just block space and hope to randomly find people, you are much less likely to succeed.
  • Figure that about 15% of those to whom you reach out will sign up. So, if you have a group of 100, a charter is not a good option.
  • If a full ship charter is beyond your reach, consider renting half. You certainly will still get preferential treatment, and there is still potential for more profit than just booking individual cabins.
  • If you belong to a consortium, reach out to them for support and technology. It’s a great opportunity for a lot of agencies, but you must understand what you are getting into. Beyond the upfront payment of “15 or 20 grand,” you need a really good system to operationalize it. Consider how you will price it, get people signed up, and promote it. GTN, for example, can create electronic sign-up forms and landing pages on which customers can click to select a cabin type and make a payment.
  • If you’re handling only the logistics, and the organization is actually handling all the activities onboard and the flow of work, your agency likely will only need to provide a point person. But, if you are hosting the events, you will need a project manager to oversee everything.

 


Cheryl Rosen on cruiseCheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.

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