Booking.com raised eyebrows last week when it announced it’s getting into the cruise booking business to take advantage of the public’s hunger for cruise travel.
The move is part of a partnership between Booking.Com and global travel agency World Travel Holdings (parent company of Dream Vacations and CruiseOne, among others). Published reports say it’s only taking place in the U.S. for now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t expand into Canada and provide more competition for Canadian advisors.
CruiseWeek reports on World Travel Holdings Co-CEO and Co-Chairman Brad Tolkin comments on Booking.com's importance.
"It's larger than Expedia," he said. "Booking Holdings [parent company] also owns Priceline and others. We [already] handle Priceline today."
Tolkin said the addition of cruising to the Booking.com platform is is not a threat to WTH franchisee members.
Over the summer, Booking.com put out a request for proposals, he explained, and WTH won that RFP.
“Once Booking.com put an RFP out there, someone was going to win it. The reason why it's great for you is because this is going to add another level of significant volume in cruising to the WTH family.”
With more volume, WTH has expanded opportunities to provide more exclusive promotions and pricing opportunities for its members.
Part of Tolkin’s messaging is that travel advisors benefit from having a company who is in their own corner involved with this type of operation.
“And so this is very beneficial to WTH, but it also is very beneficial to our CruiseOne and Dream Vacations members.”
CruiseWeek sat down with him after his speech to catch up on a variety of issues.
Tolkin said WTH owns perhaps 35 brands, including Cruises.com, 1-800-CRUISES, Cruise 411, Cheap Cruises, and Vacation Outlet, and many others. They have the two franchisee brands; Dream Vacations and CruiseOne. They also operate all cruises for American Airlines, Delta Airlines, United Airlines, and many more.
“As for our newest brand, Booking.com, based in Amsterdam, is the largest OTA company in the world.”
“The advantage to the cruise industry is that Booking.com is is a very large company that attracts a certain clientele. And none of their customers ever travelled on a cruise with them.
“Now, certainly there are customers within their customer base that have gone on cruises, but now they will be able to introduce cruises to a number of people who don't go on cruises. I don't know the exact statistic today, but the last I heard it's still lower than 4% of the U.S. population cruises per year.
“So for the cruise lines, it's another brand that sells a vacation product that can help take that number higher than it is today.”
Tolkin said his company’s direct-to-consumer business is bigger than their advisory channel, but that the advisory channel business is growing faster than the direct-to-consumer line.
“I think it's because the consumer wants that comfort and advice that comes with dealing with an individual. And it started right at March of 2020. It really did when all those FCCs (Future Cruise Credits) were issued and the consumer didn't know what to do.
“The FCCs always existed,” he said to CruiseWeek. “But this was a different type of future cruise credit. And so now the consumer was being called by their travel advisor, telling them, 'Please don't cancel,’ because most of the cruise lines said, 'If you don't cancel, we're going to supersize the amount of money you paid us. So if you paid a thousand dollars, we're going to give you $1,250 toward a future cruise.'
“And I think that helped the travel advisor channel and got them closer to their customer.”
CruiseWeek asked Tolkin about millennials having a better understanding how useful a travel agent is today, and asked if he’s seeing cruise growth in the millennial market.
”They're more knowledgeable. I have three sons and three daughters-in-law. I have nine grandchildren, but I speak to a lot of their friends. Now, I am not talking a trip from Boston to Miami, but every one of them, when they go on a holiday, they are using a travel agent.
“They're not booking it directly. Could they? Yes, they could. Okay, but they value their time. They want to give it to someone to handle it. And it's easy. You get a knowledgeable travel advisor, just like you choose your lawyer or your doctor.
"They become comfortable with that person and they say, 'Just please book me. This is where I want to go. Do it for me.'"
