Cruise Holidays Completes Phase 1 of Social Media Training Series

Minneapolis, MN (March 14, 2011)—Cruise Holidays has completed the first phase of an ambitious multi-course social media training program, attracting widespread participation from its franchise owners, frontline agents and independent contractors.

The first phase in this series of Webinars, announced at the franchise network’s Annual Convention last November, consisted of six live online training sessions. The sessions were complemented by a new, private Cruise Holidays Facebook Group dedicated to supporting questions from participants about social networking. Cruise Holidays franchise owners also began contributing to http://www.cruisesource.us, the cruise travel blog launched three years ago by Cruise Holidays’ parent company, Travel Leaders Leisure Group, which is moderated by Social Media Manager Rich Tucker.

Training Is Relevant to Travel Industry
With topics such as "Turning Shared Interests into Group Cruises” and "Using Blogs to Build Business,” the topics are specific to the cruise industry. "I had attended seminars on social media before, but they were always very general,” said Colleen Turner, a Cruise Holidays franchise owner in Bellevue, WA. "Given Rich’s knowledge of the travel business, he was able to share his vast experience and give us practical suggestions on how to use social media to grow our cruise business,” said Turner. Turner credits the training thus far with already helping her secure about a dozen staterooms because of the increased, targeted blogging she has been doing.

Training Attracts Baby Boomers
Franchise owners who may have originally dismissed social networking as ineffective or a waste of time have also benefitted from the training. Mike Berryhill, a Cruise Holidays franchise owner in Surprise, AZ, said, "As a baby boomer, I was ‘wrong for so long’ about the benefits of social media. I came from an age group that didn't put their stuff out there for the whole world to see.” Berryhill, who has only been involved in Twitter, Facebook and blogosphere for about three months, recently booked his first couple of staterooms that he credits directly to social networking. "I would not have even known about some of the creative ways you can find sources and outlets for new business had it not been for this training series,” said Berryhill.

More Training Planned
Cruise Holidays plans to repeat the series of introductory sessions in 2011 with new and updated material since the landscape of social networking is constantly changing. The network will also offer ongoing training for those who to advance their business even further through social networking. "The hunger to learn is out there, and with our in-house resources, we are providing relevant training to our franchise owners that they really can’t find anywhere else,” said Mark Schiffner, vice president and COO of Cruise Holidays.
 

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Cruise Holidays is the oldest cruise-specialty retail franchise in North America, with stores and home-based franchise owners in both the United States and Canada. Cruise Holidays is also a distinguished provider of land tour vacation packages. Founded in 1984, Cruise Holidays is part of Travel Leaders Group. With approximately 30% of all travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada under its umbrella, Travel Leaders Group serves millions of individual leisure travelers, as well as select corporate clients and destinations.