Princess Adds Tools to Help Plan Cruise Sales
Princess Cruises has introduced a new POLAR Online feature to help travel agents plan a sale, cruise night or other promotions. In addition, the company’s online training program, Princess Academy, has just added a new course called “Successful Cruise Nights” to help agents maximize sales from these events.
The new course was suggested by and written in collaboration with an experienced travel agent, who entered the winning suggestion in a recent competition to recommend new Academy course topics.
Agency owners can schedule a weeklong Princess cruise sale up to six times each year. Sale events enable agents to offer customers a reduced $100-per-person deposit and a Princess coupon booklet with more than $120 worth of onboard discounts.
With the new POLAR Online function, agents can to set up their cruise sale dates in two steps, rather than calling in to reserve their cruise sale week. Agents will also be able to track results from cruise sales over time, so in the future they can refer back to see how successful past events have been.
The “Successful Cruise Nights” course in Princess Academy was developed to offer ideas to help increase sales. The course was based on a suggestion from travel agent Diana Reuling of Cruise & Sea Inc. in Frederick, Md. Reuling won the Princess Academy Insider’s “Suggestion Box” contest, which was a competition to suggest a new course for the Academy, and she received $500 for her winning suggestion.
She also collaborated on the course content to provide some of her own best advice and tips on hosting a cruise night. The new course is now available to all Academy participants, including as continuing education for Commodore graduates.
Additional new courses will be available soon which focus on sales skills and techniques for driving business. Princess Cruise Night Kits, containing advertising material, decorating items and door prizes, are also available through district sales managers to help agents host a Cruise Night in conjunction with the sale.
Academy agents can also look for similar contests to be announced periodically through the Insider, an email newsletter exclusively for Academy participants that offers advance information to help agents drive sales by staying on top of the latest developments with Princess.
