Steller's Sea Lions in Russian Far East, copyright: @Akvile Marozaite.
You have received your first expedition cruise enquiry. You researched the destination and the expedition cruising brands that offer itineraries to your clients’ desired destination. Perhaps you made your first expedition cruise booking and received a commission and you would like to become an expert in selling expedition cruising. Or maybe you loved what you learnt and would like to learn more. What’s next?
1. If you can, experience it yourself. This is how.
Expedition cruise guests engaging with a friendly whale in Mexico's Baja California.
The first best thing to understand expedition cruising is to join an expedition cruise. Nothing compares to learning from the experience. These days, more and more expedition cruising brands recognize the value of offering FAM trips to the travel trade so be sure to express your wish to your manager or to the sales representative of the expedition cruising brand or brands you work with – they may not be able to instantly offer you a spot but you will seed a thought in their mind when the time comes around to send out the invitations. Start with learning a lot about one destination instead of knowing little about many – a typical expedition cruise client will have done a lot of research before reaching out to you to book their future trip, so be prepared. The three most popular expedition cruising destinations to start your learning journey are Antarctica, Arctic, and the Galapagos archipelago.
A guest photographing Sea Lions in theGalapagos. Galapagos Archipelago is a year-round expedition cruising destination famous for unique wildlife species that has no fear of humans.
2. Use expedition cruising brand’s resources online.
Most of the expedition cruising brands offer a wealth of resources on their website, Youtube channel, published brochure, blog posts, and social media channels - check out our member pages for the individual brands. After you have learned the basic geographical features of the destination, seasonal highlights, wildlife species, and other points of interest, one of the best ways to learn about day-to-day experience onboard the ship is to look out for a version of a daily blog most expedition cruising brands publish online. Most of the expedition cruising operators will have expedition team members write a short daily blog post highlighting that day’s experience, weather, species seen, lectures attended to and any other important thing that happened on that day. Not only this will give you a taste of what the daily experience is like onboard the ship, you can also invite your client to check this, cementing your reputation as a knowledgeable expert of expedition cruising brands and destinations.
3. Sign up to expedition cruising brand’s newsletter.
Sign up to brand’s trade and consumer newsletters to be the first one to learn about various offers and opportunities to learn- for example, our member Quark expeditions often offers destination specific webinars where a sales representative or expedition team member will go through the itinerary or a region in detail and will talk through the experience onboard and additional adventures offered.
Hurtigruten's MV Fram in Antarctica. Copyright: @Akvile Marozaite
4. Request a meeting and/or organize a client event with expedition cruise brand’s representative.
If you have a number of clients interested in a specific expedition cruising brand or itinerary, check with the sales representative of the expedition cruise operator whether they would be available to meet the prospective clients to address their questions or if it is worthwhile to organize a sales event – it’s a win-win for all parties – sales representatives love supporting events where the audience is already engaged with the product and this also builds trust with your clients and helps convert the prospects– you should also check with the brand if they would be willing to offer a small discount to add a subtle extra push to make a sale.
Arctic Fox in its summer coat - Yankicha Island, Kuril Islands group. Copyright: @Akvile Marozaite
5. Take an advantage of the industry events and meet expedition cruising brands in person.
Attend industry events and make appointments with expedition cruising brands – some of them do not have a permanent sales representative in UK or Ireland, however they attend some of the key trade industry events.
6. Become a member of Expedition Cruise Network.
Expedition Cruise Network is a B2B organization that connects expedition cruising brands with travel trade community. Our purpose is to give you necessary knowledge and tools to sell this incredible way of travel. Get in touch.
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