Royal Caribbean is looking to recruit 1,500 more agents to its Club Royal scheme by the end of next year as it announces the introduction of a third card level – Platinum.

Club Royal, which has almost 10,500 members, has also been adapted to make it easier for agents to reach Gold card status.

The move meant that last week Royal enabled an additional 70 agents to become Gold cardholders. There are now 178, with 18 Platinum card members.

Royal Caribbean’s UK and Ireland sales director, Ben Bouldin, unveiled the new structure at a party for trade partners to mark Club Royal’s second year last week.

The new Platinum level of the scheme, which previously had just two tiers, will be instantly applicable to anyone who successfully registered more than 200 bookings between September 24, 2015 and September 23, 2016.

Status update
Blue card members (1-75 annual bookings) will receive £5 credit per booking, a £10 birthday bonus and £100 of Royal Caribbean holiday cashback; and Gold members (75-200 bookings per year on their card) will receive £5 credit per booking, a £25 birthday bonus, £300 Royal Caribbean holiday cashback, as well as the chance to double credit for seven days twice a year.

The new Platinum status (more than 200 annual bookings) will entitle an agent to £7.50 credit per booking, a £25 birthday bonus, £350 Royal Caribbean holiday cashback and the ability to double credit for seven days four times per year.

Once members were allocated their level last week, the number of bookings were reset back to zero, with agents having a year to hit retention or promotion levels.

Bouldin continued: “There are about 13,500 agents who should be in our scheme and I think the team has set themselves a target of 12,000 by the end of next year.

“We’re cleansing the scheme as well – we want everyone in it to be a travel agent right now.

“The scheme is also a respectful one – the amount agents earn isn’t enough to upset the apple cart of the business direction. We consulted with top travel agent partners about it.”

Bouldin added that Royal Caribbean now has the “scope or resource” to work more effectively with more independents.

“We are doing a lot of work through the retail team with engaging independents and that’s where I think a lot of opportunity lies for us,” he said.

Bouldin originally introduced Club Royal after observing that it cost around £150,000 to reward 25 agents with a trip to the Brit Awards, but that the cruise line did not get to effectively engage with agents through that format.

“I thought we could do something much more meaningful for a similar amount of money,” he said. “We now have a relationship with our agents and a vehicle to communicate with them every day of the year.”