Cruise Holidays 'hybrid' a perfect fit for some
by Donna Tunney
Travel Weekly published the following story in its newsletter for home-based agents on November 1, 2010.
You may also link to the story on the publication's Web site here:
http://www.travelweekly.com/article3_ektid223646.aspx
Cruise Holidays, the franchiser that has about 200 storefront and home-based affiliates in North America, rolled out a hybrid retail operation that's neither storefront nor home-based.
Its new retail model is meant to be located in an office building, for client convenience, but doesn't rely on the bells and whistles that come with a storefront, such as posters in the windows, dusk-to-dawn operating hours and scores of brochure racks for walk-in clients to peruse. Under this model, the franchise owner is strongly urged to bring into the location as many independent agents as necessary to grow the business.
Two such franchises have already opened: one in London, Ontario, and one in Charlotte.
The Charlotte office is run by Bob Shaffer, who had formerly operated a home-based Cruise Holidays franchise. For Shaffer, it turned out to be the perfect solution to the challenges he faced as a go-it-alone, home-based travel seller.
"I needed to implement a new growth strategy because my home-based business had fundamentally hit a wall," Shaffer said. "Working as a solo travel agent and given my focus on group travel, I found myself essentially 'sold out' for the next year or so."
Shaffer explained that since he accompanies most of his group tours, he was simply running out of time. "During the past 12 months, I personally have been on eight group cruises and sold three other groups that I did not accompany.
"At the time I made the decision to move to the Cruise Holidays retail model, I had nine groups booked to cruise within the following 15 months, with me accompanying most of them." And, he said, there were five other "strong prospects" that he could not pursue because he didn't believe that he could follow through.
The new model, Shaffer said, opened up his potential to add independent travel counselors as outside sales agents, and they are "already taking some of my travel load off of me."
Shaffer said he anticipates ultimately working with as many as 20 independent agents.
According to the franchiser, the new retail model eliminates royalty payments back to Cruise Holidays and features lower overhead (compared to traditional storefronts) by not requiring set hours.
Also, the model includes access to Cruise Holidays' On Your Behalf marketing program, a direct mail, email marketing and website strategy.
It is open to existing Cruise Holidays virtual office franchise owners as well as interested outside parties. The initial franchise investment fee is $30,000, and there's a monthly fee of $750, Cruise Holidays said.
Founded in 1984, Cruise Holidays is part of the Travel Leaders Leisure Group division of Travel Leaders Group.