Cruise Holidays' Regional Meetings Set Strategy For Continued Growth And Success

Cruise Holidays, the oldest and largest cruise specialty retailer in North America, just concluded a series of its regular Regional Meetings across the United States and Canada. The 120 franchisees and front-line agents in attendance learned details of how Cruise Holidays would assist them in enhancing and expanding their expertise in the cruise and vacation business. The meetings were held the last two weeks of March in Kansas City, Las Vegas, Seattle, Toronto, Newark and Orlando.

In a year when cruise lines have stated Wave Season wasn't as robust as anticipated, the Cruise Holidays network is experiencing growth of approximately 16% over 2005, according to Cruise Holidays Vice President and COO Peter Thomson. "To continue that success, the Cruise Holidays Regional Meetings focused on a strategy that will further enable our franchisees to maximize their customers' experiences in ways that are most beneficial to each Cruise Holidays' overall business plan," noted Thomson.

The highlights of the meeting were: Selling the Cruise Holidays Way: Showing franchisees how following the "Cruise Holidays formula" for local selling and marketing strategies will both enhance the customer's experience and positively affect each store's bottom line. Marketing and Branding of Cruise Holidays: In an effort to strengthen the brand awareness of Cruise Holidays among consumers, a new 30-second television commercial with a customized tag has been produced for use in local markets. Other details of the aggressive brand enhancement plan were discussed with the ultimate goal of making Cruise Holidays the preferred cruise specialty brand. Technology Tools and Update: In order to provide what the customer desires, including "24/7" information, Cruise Holidays is moving forward with Cruise Manager, its own online booking tool. In addition, stores are in the process transitioning to CruiseWeb 6.0, Cruise Holidays' proprietary and newly Web-based business operations system. Completion of the network migration is scheduled for September. Training and Education: Franchisees received an update and detailed measurements on the Leisure Sales Process, which is an ongoing program designed to teach new Cruise Holidays cruise counselors how to reach their sales objectives more quickly. Meetings and Networking: For the first time in recent years, the 2006 Cruise Holidays Annual Convention will be held on land, October 12-15 in Miami, FL. This will allow more interaction with high-level cruise line executives and greater participation at the Cruise Holidays Trade Show. Additional networking will be available via a post-convention cruise. The information and strategies presented over the last two weeks resonated with franchisees on both sides of the border.

"(Cruise Holidays) is inspiring and a company that you are happy to be a part of," said Peter Neubauer of Cruise Holidays of Lawrence Park in Toronto, ON. "With respect to the brand marketing � and what it wants to achieve, I think it was spelled out, has a lot of goals ahead of it and has the tools to do it. I'm very happy to be associated with an organization that has the strength to really look after its franchisees." Ira Kaplan of Cruise Holidays of Marlboro in New Jersey, a nearly 20-year veteran of Cruise Holidays, added to that sentiment. "We are going in the right direction for the future: technology-wise, marketing-wise, email-wise, people-wise, program-wise and headquarter-wise. Everybody is moving in the right direction." For more information about Cruise Holidays or to learn about joining the Cruise Holidays network, call 800-866-7245 or visit www.CruiseHolidays.com.

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