{"id":23233,"date":"2024-10-08T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=23233"},"modified":"2024-10-14T15:23:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T14:23:29","slug":"be-part-of-a-team-travel-the-world-book-dream-holidays-and-raise-money-for-charity-like-these-franchisees-trekking-in-peru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/be-part-of-a-team-travel-the-world-book-dream-holidays-and-raise-money-for-charity-like-these-franchisees-trekking-in-peru\/","title":{"rendered":"The Travel Franchise proves there\u2019s big money to be made selling cruise holidays \u2013 and they\u2019ll show you how"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Two years on since the launch of its Cruise Division, The Travel Franchise and its customer-facing brand Not Just Travel has hailed the pioneering training programme \u201ca resounding success\u201d with consultants booking three times as many cruise holidays.<\/p>\n

Having recognised that many of its agents were shying away from what is one of the most lucrative sectors in the entire travel industry, the award-winning company devised the specialist training programme to boost its agents\u2019 knowledge and confidence.<\/p>\n

Some 360 franchisees have signed up for its Cruise Mastery Programme since its launch in 2022 and company co-founder Paul Harrison says the results have \u201csurpassed all our expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been absolutely blown away by the increase in our cruise sales over these two years,\u201d said Harrison. \u201cIn the past many of our agents would avoid cruise bookings because they thought they were too complicated. We knew there was money to be made that our agents just weren\u2019t grasping and we wanted to address this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our training we\u2019ve demystified and simplified the whole cruise booking and sales process. Now our agents are actually choosing to specialise in the field and purposefully going out there to get the cruise bookings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is that some franchisees have secured single cruise bookings this year of over \u00a3135,000 while for others, such as Tracey Fordham, over 40 per cent of their sales are now cruise with a growing number of river cruise bookings.<\/p>\n

Fordham recently secured a \u00a389,000 cruise booking and with 40 cruises under her belt she\u2019s now considered an expert – but like many other consultants, it wasn\u2019t always her forte.<\/p>\n

The majority of Not Just Travel consultants had no former experience in travel before joining The Travel Franchise \u2013 the number one choice for people new to the industry wanting to pursue their passion for travel and launch their own travel consultancy business.<\/p>\n

Vikki Coffey is a perfect example. Not only was she completely new to working in travel, she was also a self-confessed \u201ctechnophobe\u201d when she joined The Travel Franchise around two and a half years ago. In September 2024 her business really set sail after she booked 1,700 people onto a cruise she tailormade \u2013 making more than \u00a31 million in cruise sales.<\/p>\n

With 56 new cruise ships on the order books between now and 2028, agents like Coffey who embrace cruising have a bright future.<\/p>\n

According to the latest trend report from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), more than 40 million passengers will cruise by 2027 and, with a dizzying array of cruise ships to choose from, many of these will look to agents for advice.<\/p>\n

Many consumers find booking a cruise overwhelming. Even if they choose a particular itinerary and ship, there\u2019s the vital detail of securing the right cabin, month of travel and flights that work seamlessly with the ship\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise therefore that CLIA reports that over 73% of cruise travellers say that travel advisors have a meaningful influence on their decision to cruise.<\/p>\n

And the good news for agents is that if a consumer takes just one cruise, they are likely to take another. In fact, it\u2019s the sector that attracts among the highest repeat booking rate standing at an incredible 82%.<\/p>\n

Some 12% of cruise travellers set sail twice a year and 10% take three to five cruises a year (which means that if a travel consultant gets it right, their customer will be straight back to do it all again).<\/p>\n

In addition to the high repeat booking rate, commissions are among the highest in the industry with rates up to 20% not uncommon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the back of our training we\u2019ve seen agent sales\u2019 and earnings skyrocket,\u201d said Harrison. \u201cIt\u2019s a clear demonstration that our training is highly effective and our agents are reaping the rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Travel Franchise\u2019s Cruise Mastery Programme incorporates a mix of online and face-to-face specialist training from cruise experts and cruise operators; exclusive ships tours; access to TTF\u2019s unique, custom-built cruise website, plus its \u201cresoundingly successful\u201d Seminar at Sea when agents attend a series of training seminars whilst onboard a real cruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Cruise Division and Cruise Mastery Programme has been a game changer for hundreds of our agents. Moving forward we intend to build on this phenomenal foundation and take it to the next level. Wherever we see there\u2019s even the slightest gap in the market, we will fill it \u2013 that\u2019s just what we do,\u201d said Harrison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years on since the launch of its Cruise Division, The Travel Franchise and its customer-facing brand Not Just Travel has hailed the pioneering training programme \u201ca resounding success\u201d with consultants booking three times as many cruise holidays. Having recognised that many of its agents were shying away from what is one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23293,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1490,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-travel-franchise","category-leisure-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/IMG_20240910_132201-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}