The cruise journey in itself is full of romance which every person wants to experience at least once in his life. Cruising offers adventure, luxury, and relaxation at the same time. You’re disconnected from worldly worries and feel refreshed in the sea tides enjoying endless activities. It is a memorable journey through a boat in vogue among many travelers. This popularity opens up many opportunities for entrepreneurs to start ventures in the cruise industry.
The cruise tourism industry is a growing sector with a bright future for investors. In the past year, about 31.7 million passengers traveled through cruise generating about 25 billion dollars for the industry.
Starting a cruise travel agency is an exciting, fun, and lucrative business idea. But, you must be wondering where and how to start the process. To help you out, in this blog, we’ll elaborate on how to start a cruise travel agency and succeed. Let’s get on to the voyage!
Cruise Travel Agency- a Rewarding Business Idea
Cruise tourism is driving growth due to its appealing unique experiences, and destination diversity. Cruises cater to all groups of ages making them ideal for family vacations. More and more people are seeking ocean and river cruises opening ample business possibilities in this market.
The cruising market is estimated to generate a revenue of $30.11 billion in 2024 with a CAGR of 5.05% (from 2024 to 2028). With growing demand, the industry is expected to rise to 33.43 million users by 2028 making cruise travel agencies a profitable business idea.
Nearly 70% of people book their holidays on cruises through cruise travel agencies. An agency also provides value-added services such as arranging hotels and tours beyond booking cruises. This increases their income potential.
Popular Places to run a cruise travel agency
There are many famous places where people go for cruising and having fun. However, according to passenger volume the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Bermuda were the most visited places in the past years. Therefore, opening a cruise agency near such tourist hotspots will be the best for entrepreneurs. Some of the places where you can start a cruise business are:
England: In England, Southampton, London, and Manchester are the best places for the cruise business. Southampton, being the major port city provides a perfect space for the departure and arrival of cruises from the English Channel. On the other hand, London and Manchester offer opportunities to start river cruise businesses having river Thames and Irwell respectively.
USA: Coastal cities like Alaska and California are the best option in America to venture into the cruise industry. One can start cruises to the Great Lakes from the cities of Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit.
Italy: The Amalfi coast and Rome are the most popular places in Italy for cruise departures. The city of water Venice would be the most suited place for cruises through the romantic rivers. Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, offers wonderful landscapes to enjoy via a cruise journey.
India: The Islands of Andaman and Kerala’s Backwaters are popular places for starting a cruise business. River cruises along the rivers Brahmaputra and Mandovi in Guwahati and Goa respectively are well-known places for their astonishing scenes.
Apart from these, countries around the Caribbean like Jamaica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, and Grenada can offer several opportunities in this business.
Attributes of a Successful Cruise Travel Agent
Passion for Traveling
A real cruise travel agent is aware of all cruise niches, lines, ship sizes, and everything else on them. Your love for them drives your recommendations and offers. Remaining updated with new developments such as sustainable cruises, theme cruises, and cruise tourism is an improvement factor for your agency. It will connect with clients who appreciate real services and products not fake ones with overrated exotic touches.
Continue Learning About Your Field
The business within this niche is also constantly changing. New ships, new destinations, and new protocols for safety are revealed often. Therefore, Thus, you are to continue learning in this field to acquire new knowledge.
Joining professional associations would help you learn more about your business by attending their seminars and workshops. In this ocean world, knowledge becomes a cornerstone for you.
Certified Training in Cruise Advisory
Certification in the cruise advisory profession also helps build trust with your clients. There are commercial institutions such as the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) that provide training classes.
Gathering information on cruise schedules, cabin classifications, and facilities available on the ship can improve your agency’s service quality. Collect knowledge about the booking, cancellation, and travel insurance policies and guide your clients with the right information beforehand.
Always remember, you are not just selling a cruise, you are selling a dream of the perfect vacation on the sea to your customers.
How to Start a Cruise Travel Agency- Bon Voyage!
Starting a venture is composed of several important steps. You must follow every step with sincerity to be a successful entrepreneur. Here are the necessary steps on how to start a cruise travel agency.
Step 1: Write a Business Plan
Drafting a plan would help you throughout your journey in the business. In case you miss any step, you can look at your plan to see what to do next. In your plan, you must detail the market research in your niche describing the services you’re going to include in your agency. By doing so, you can estimate your potential customers and initial expenses.
By assessing the cost involved in the startup, you can look for funding if needed. Other ways are the bank credit or private credit firms which will facilitate you to begin your business financially.
Step 2: Choose a Niche
Selecting the correct niche for your cruise travel agency means that you will be unique from the other competitors in the market. Your start-up cruise travel agency can offer river, luxury, or expedition cruises.
While choosing the area of business, you have to consider some factors. Ask yourself the following questions before choosing a niche:
- Who is your targeted audience? Families, couples, solo travelers, or retired people?
- How many competitors are there in that niche?
- Is your niche in high demand in the market?
- What possible problems can you face in that area? What are the solutions to those hurdles?
- How much profit can you earn in that particular niche?
Step 3: Register Your Cruise Travel Agency
Legal requirements are something one has to meet before operating a cruise travel agency. By doing so, you are avoiding facing any legal hurdles altogether in the future. One must register the business under the legal structure and authority.
Obtain all the licenses and permits necessary to venture into a cruise travel agency business. It would be beneficial to learn about the regulations and policies in the industry for the growth of your business.
Step 4: Set Up an Offline Office for Your Cruise Travel Agency
You need to set up a physical office for starting a cruise travel agency. For this, you must strategically select a place that could be easily found.
Try listing your agency’s location on the search engines using specific keywords so that people can locate and contact you.
Step 5: Set Up a Booking System
You will need an appropriate and efficient system for booking tours for your clients. For this purpose, you must have a robust booking engine where clients can easily search, compare, and book different cruise trip packages. You can also offer booking on the phone or offline.
For payments, there must be a secure payment option via different portals such as net banking, debit card, credit card, or UPI payment. Offer payments by hand for offline bookings.
After booking and payment, clients should receive confirmation messages and relevant information. For this, you must set up an instant message set up on your booking website.
Step 6: Advertise Your Cruise Travel Agency
Create a Website: Publicizing a business is a necessity in today’s world. For this, you must build a website for starting a cruise travel agency. You can post your recommended trip plans for different destinations. You can also share blogs and images of various trip locations to make your business visible to search engines.
Use Social Media: Create pages for your business on social media platforms to reach and interact with a wider audience. Share photo and video testimonials from various cruise trips organized by your agency.
Referral Programs: Offer your customers free or discount on the next bookings if they recommend your cruise travel agency to their friends and family. Starting one-plus-one or two-plus-one schemes can attract more customers. You can also lure clients by providing discounts on first-time bookings with your cruise travel agency.
For advertising purposes, you can hire professionals or partner with a reliable digital marketing company. A digital marketing agency can manage your social media accounts and make your business website rank higher in search engine result pages using efficient SEO and content strategies.
Step 7: Build Connections with Cruise Lines and Suppliers
Maintaining good relationships with other business people in the industry always benefits you. Therefore, it is an important step to start a cruise travel agency. Interaction with cruise line owners and other business-related people is required through trade shows and events in the cruise line industry.
There are bodies in the operation of cruises for instance the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), which arranges fairs and business courses for those in the field. You have to be a member of such associations to be informed of the new trends and laws governing the business.
By developing working relations with tour operators and traveling lines, you can discuss and achieve attractive offers, for example, priority in booking, lower prices for a group of tourists, and other bonuses for guests.
Step 8: Create Extraordinary Travel Experience for Your Clients
Enhancing your customers’ cruise travel will make them remember and recommend your cruise travel agency. For example, you can surprise your client by celebrating his birthday or anniversary onboard. They would create long-lasting memories with your cruise travel agency.
Another thing you can do is make their boarding process convenient by providing clear instructions on the trip. Help them in booking taxis or flights on their way back home. Create exceptional experiences for them on the shore beyond the ship by sharing local foods and tourist hotspots.
Expenses to Start a Cruise Travel Agency
The cost of starting a cruise travel agency varies on various factors such as the location of your offline office, online presence expenses, and type of cruise travel. An estimated amount of money is:
Renting an office: $1,500 to $5,000 per month (based on the location)
Interior and decoration of office and other expenses: $5,000 to $20,000
Creating a website for your business: $2,000 to $10,000
Branding and marketing of your business: $2,000 to $10,000 (depending on the marketing strategies you use)
Software and tools: $1,000 to $5,000
Staff salary and training: $2,000 to $10,000
Licensing and acquiring permits for a cruise travel agency: $1,000 to $5,000
Including other miscellaneous expenses, the overhead cost to start a cruise travel agency ranges from $20,000 to $122,000.
However, one should bear in mind that the above costs are approximated and can change with some other factors.
Final Thoughts
Opening a cruise travel agency can be exciting for people interested in the tourism sector. Thus, your cruise travel agency must be able to assist people in living their dreams on the sea with excellent services.
For marketing and branding your business, consider partnering with a reliable digital marketing agency like New Traffic Tail and expand your business.
We hope this blog helped you conveniently learn how to start a cruise travel agency. If you still have any issues, feel free to let us know in the comments section. We’ll be happy to answer your queries. Bon Voyage on your venture!
FAQs
Q1: What are the challenges of starting a cruise travel agency?
Existing competition in the market is the first challenge that the newcomers face. Also, they may face difficulties in building trust and finding clients.
Q2: How can I market my luxury cruise travel agency?
Make use of social media platforms to advertise your luxury cruise travel agency. Create a website for your business and post relevant content regularly.
Offer discounts on first and group bookings. Allure customers by offering freebies on referring to other people.
Market your business by word of mouth in your existing network of friends and colleagues.
Q3: How can I make my cruise travel agency the best?
Understand the cruise industry deeply and try to make your clients’ experiences wonderful and unforgettable. Keep on collecting knowledge about the new trends in the industry. Make strong relationships with customers and other fellow businessmen in the field.
