旅行顾问兴奋,对水晶巡游的谨慎回报
经过多里·萨尔茨曼(Dori Saltzman)/Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. That’s the stance some – but not all – travel advisors are taking when it comes to embracing the return of Crystal Cruises.
The line left many advisors in the lurch with hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid commissions when it went out of business in early 2022. Some believe new owner, A&K Travel Group, needs to make right by the agency community before they’ll feel comfortable supporting it. Other advisors are full steam ahead, already compiling lists of clients ready to sail as soon as the ships are back at seas.
“There aren’t enough words to describe just how ecstatic I am,” Dana Dziegiel, owner of Gypsea Travels, LLC, an independent agency in the Avoya Travel Network, told Travel Market Report. “When the ‘end of Crystal’ announcement was made in January, I was devastated. Not just for myself and my clients, but for the amazing crew that I call ‘family.’”
不仅仅是顾问感到兴奋。
“我上周四与水晶客户共进晚餐,我们俩都很高兴听到A&K将水晶巡游带回来,” Dream Vacations Pressance的所有者Karen Quinn-Panzer说。
Dziegiel said she already has a “pretty significant list started of clients that want to book when they announce the itineraries in 2023… Once you’ve been ‘Crystalized’ it’s hard to imagine being on another line.”
Unpaid Commissions Remain a Sticking Point
对于某些顾问而言,无偿佣金的问题仍然是房间里的大象。
“Will the travel agency community support Crystal if our commissions are not paid?” asked Susan Reder of Frosch Classic Cruise and Travel, a luxury agency within the Signature Travel network. “We have an exorbitant of outstanding commissions due. Those commissions have to be paid to get any support!”
雷德说,她不太担心对客户的退款,因为大多数预订的人都做了他们需要的事情(通常是通过信用卡)来获得退款。她本人获得了一笔退款,因为她今年二月在Crystal努力上预订了Crystal努力。
奎因·潘策(Quinn-Panzer)还说,她的客户恢复了存款。她很幸运,没有欠任何杰出委托。但是她补充说:“我当然可以理解一些顾问感到生气或谨慎。”
另一方面,迪齐尔说,她的客户都没有对水晶品牌抱有任何不满。她没有自己的感觉。“As an agent, I feel it’s pointless to be angry or to hold resentment over the lost commissions… I am only speaking for myself when I say I don’t believe the ‘new’ Crystal should be held liable to pay the ‘old’ Crystal’s debts to the agency community. There are so many of us that have lost thousands of dollars in unpaid commissions, but are still willing and very excited to be selling Crystal again.”
A Perfect Match
顾问TMR与商定交谈的一件事是,Abercrombie&Kent和Crystal Cruises的配对是很棒的。
“My reaction to the news was ‘what a great brand pairing,’” Quinn-Panzer said. “Both brands are extremely high on the customer loyalty scale. Excellent decision for A&K to maintain the Crystal brand name in my view because Crystal clients are both loyal and passionate about their loyalty. It’s all about the service standard… A&K is the land equivalent of that high service. Hopefully, they can leverage both brand names to take bookings to another level … 2 + 2 = 5.”
“A&K and Manfredi Lefebvre definitely know luxury and I’m sure will be able to make something fantastic happen,” Reder agreed, but added “They just need to spell out what they are planning to do sooner than later and will they make good on outstanding commissions and refunds.”
Quinn-Panzer also said the A&K name also provides a sense of financial reassurance. “A&K lends financial responsibility to reassure the marketplace, and hopefully they can cross-sell land trips to cruisers and turn land clients into first time cruisers.”
服务水平相同?
尽管A&K的声誉享有声誉,但Reder表示,她担心该公司将无法提供相同水平的服务水晶,这主要是因为该系列的大多数工作人员都在继续前进。
“I believe that most of the staff and crew have been rehired with other cruise lines,” Reder said. “A&K will need to basically start over… I believe that A&K can get new people but it’s going to take a very long time to try and get up to speed where Crystal was before the bankruptcy.”
Dziegiel并不那么担心。她告诉TMR:“我自己,以及我的许多客户都认为,他们将竭尽所能带回尽可能多的水晶工作人员。”“我们都知道,在沿着水晶航行时,真正的船员确实有所不同。”