this year\u2019s State of the Cruise Industry<\/a>.)<\/p>\nDarr finished up on stage by reiterating how important the travel advisor community is to the cruise industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are still the most important distribution channel by far,\u201d he said. \u201cThe work you provide is extremely valuable to the cruise lines. You are an extremely valuable community to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou shape the landscape of how cruise is sold, how it\u2019s understood, and how it grows. The role you play is vital,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Presidents Panel<\/p>\n
Opening day general session at Cruise360 is always dominated by the Presidents Panel, which returned after a brief absence last year. This year\u2019s panel comprised just two presidents \u2013 Norwegian Cruise Lines\u2019 Marc Kazlauskas and Carnival\u2019s Christine Duffy \u2013 and John Lovell, senior advisor to Virgin Voyages. The panel was moderated by Cruise Planners\u2019 chief strategy officer Scott Koepf, who said he chose the three panelists because all three have worked on the travel agency retail side at some point in their careers.<\/p>\n
Speaking of her own hiring as president at Carnival Cruise Line 11 years ago, Duffy admitted she was an \u201cunconventional choice\u201d to lead a cruise line at the time. But she added, it was a testament to then Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald for understanding the \u201cimportance of putting people in leadership that understand from the bottom up how things work.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what they believe are the biggest challenges facing the travel advisor community these days, the executives each went in different directions.<\/p>\n
Kazlauskas pointed out three issues he believes are a challenge for advisors: unpredictability, air, and disintermediation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne, which hits us all, is unpredictability. That\u2019s stuff you just don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. \u201cYou guys get the calls at 10, 11 o\u2019clock at night when someone is stuck overseas because a volcano goes off, a bomb goes off, a flight gets canceled. That unpredictability is why you pick partners that are predictable to you, that have your back\u2026 that will work with you to help get a client home or get them where they need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of disintermediation and supplies that push direct sales, Kazlauskas said NCL \u2013 and all the CLIA cruise lines \u2013 want the trade to be healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that you help us. I look at you as one of our main sales channels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lovell cited AI as a continuing challenge for advisors, not because he believes AI will replace advisors but because he thinks advisors need to be more proactive about embracing the AI tools being created for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot has been made of it in the wrong way. I think that AI, for those of you in this room who choose to embrace it, will absolutely be the biggest asset in the world for you,\u201d Lovell said. \u201cThe tools that we\u2019re developing are being developed with each and every one of you in mind because, ultimately, we need you to make the right recommendation for the right product. AI will help you make the best decision for your customer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duffy turned to a tried and true challenge that has always been there for travel advisors \u2013 where do you focus your time.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an advisor you think about, where do I invest my time, where I get the greatest return,\u201d she said, pointing out that figuring out where to focus and what to focus is not as much a challenge as it is an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One week ago, Bud Darr, the president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), stood in front…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-244931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}