Cruise Planners Forged Ahead with Land Symposium

Cruise Planners successfully kicked off their Land Symposium hosted by the AIC Hotel Group at the Hard Rock Punta Cana despite the threat of Hurricane Dorian. About 125 agents were able to make the trip and attend and enjoy the amped up atmosphere of the resort.

Much was packed into the event focused on land for those Cruise Planners who attended to learn how to grow their land business. A few highlights from the event:

• Cruise Planners COO Vicky Garcia hosted a Land Lubbers Panel for agents to learn best practices from these top agents with a great discussion of selling groups and avoiding “tripophobia,” the fear of not having any travel trips booked.
• Director of Sales Laura Blanco hosted an All-Inclusive Panel for several resorts including Apple Leisure Group’s own Carlos Gonzales from AMResorts. This allowed each participant to each represent their brand, where they are located, what’s coming, how to register and how to share partnership ideas.
• President of Travel Impressions Scott Wiseman attended the trade show and had a feature presentation as well. His presentation, “Lessons from an FBI Profiler Can Capture You More Clients,” was inspired by the book “Mind Hunters” (which he told us is also a great binge watch on Netflix) was very engaging. It took a fun look into personality types and how you can more effectively work with types that match your own and those that don’t.
• Kelly Austin, a Millionaire Club Member with Cruise Planners, did an amazing presentation on groups and the importance of working with contracts with clients. She really knows all the ins and outs of groups with the different suppliers and how to be legally and successfully booking them.

The event also included a great trade show, one-on-one appointments with VAX and finished off with an optional extended VAX training once the event wrapped up! We were very excited to see at least 80% of the attendees show up for VAX training. There was a big round of applause as I demonstrated the latest enhancements: Duplicate Search and Compare Itineraries.  It always makes me feel so good when agents take time to come up afterwards and share how impactful VAX can be for their business and how much they love it!

It wasn’t all classes though; there were three different receptions, the first on the beach and oh, was it beautiful out there! The green party at the ORO bar was certainly showcasing the Hard Rock vibe with electrifying dancers, fun music and some great interactive games so agents could win some amazing prizes! Overall, an awesome event!

About the Author

Beth Kitzman is the business development manager for Trisept Solutions' Agency Channel for VAX VacationAccess. Beth focuses on nurturing business relationships and finding exciting, unique ways for VAX to support travel agencies. With over 20 years of experience in the travel industry, beginning with Walt Disney World then working for airlines and now focusing on travel technology, Beth loves using her education degree to find ways to educate and empower travel agents to grow their leisure travel business.