Nicki Lewis, the line’s senior sales enablement manager, who has taken on UK and Ireland sales director Stuart Byron’s responsibilities on an interim basis after he left the line, told TTG Royal’s educational programme would exceed 3,500 spaces for EMEA agents.
She also confirmed Royal would offer another seminar at sea sailing onboard Oasis of the Seas from Barcelona to Rome in May. “This means it will be our biggest-ever ship visit programme,” Lewis said.
“The number of UK agents will be in the thousands, rather than the hundreds. We’ll invite cruise specialists as well as new-to-cruise agents.”
Lewis revealed the line had released a new-starter “work book” to educate new cruise-selling agents about the Royal brand. Agents will receive one when they sign up to the Club Royal trade portal.
Lewis said the line had also produced two “super-cool” videos – one focusing on couples and the other on families – which highlighted Royal’s value proposition and were released before Christmas. “We’re driving a lot of value [messaging] at the moment,” she added.
A digital selling guide, meanwhile, will be released on Wednesday (3 January). “The selling guide tells the trade about the wave campaign and other top tips,” she said. “[The guide] is super-smart and you can hover over the page and it will give you more detail.”
Royal has also printed postcards with brand messaging for agents to put on their desks.
In addition, the entire 18-person trade sales team, plus Royal’s EMEA vice-president Ben Bouldin, will be visiting agents across the country from the week beginning 8 January.
“You will not fail to see a pink Royal Caribbean shirt out and about,” Lewis pledged. “Ben will help cover Scotland, while I will oversee the rest of the UK.”
Bouldin recently sat down with TTG to discuss the trade’s recovery from the Covid crisis, the challenges they and the wider industry have faced, and how Royal will up its service to agents this year.
