ITTN‘s Dermot Merrigan joined InteleTravel Agents at the beautiful Powerscourt Estate in Wicklow, on Wednesday, where they were hosted by Royal Caribbean on a day of training and learning about what Royal Caribbean can offer holidaymakers in the Irish market.
The Royal Caribbean team were out in force for an exclusive afternoon of convivial engagement, training and lunch with over 50 InteleTravel agents from across Ireland. Hosted in the luxurious surrounds of Powerscourt Estate, Co. Wicklow, the day involved two separate sessions, with presentations to those eager to learn more about what Royal Caribbean has to offer, and to those who have already made bookings and are looking to take their RCCL expertise to the next level.
Speaking about the event, Royal Caribbean Senior Sales Manager, Aaron Langford said: “We’re thrilled to be here today in Ireland talking to our fantastic partners at InteleTravel. We’re really here to promote, educate and motivate the Royal Caribbean brand with InteleTravel and we have a lot to talk about on the value we bring and what we have to offer the holiday market. Our partnership in the UK with Intele has been fantastic in the past few years, we’ve seen incredible growth and commitment from the UK advisors and we want to replicate that in Ireland.
“We’ve had a really strong presence in Ireland over the past two or three decades and we’ve always had a dedicated team here in Ireland and we want to ramp up that presence. We have lots of opportunities with new ships and new destinations coming online, we would love to take our Irish travel partners over to see and explore everything that Royal Caribbean has to offer! Between myself and my team, we’re really looking to elevate that again, so watch this space!”
With InteleTravel’s presence in Ireland on the rise, Tricia Handley-Hughes, the company’s UK & Ireland Managing Director expressed just how valuable such sessions are to InteleTravel agents:
“InteleTravel has been in business for over 35 years and we’re here today to support our new and established advisors in cruise training. Our business model is about creating new sales pipelines, attracting new people to the business and to the industry more broadly. Some of our advisors have never sold travel before, but now they’re selling millions of euros worth of packages, and they’ve been with us less than two years! Our advisors are part-time workers, they’re mums and they’re operating their travel business effectively.
“People criticise InteleTravel for bringing new people into the industry who don’t know a lot about travel but let me tell you- just because you work part time doesn’t mean you care any less about your customers and if you’re really hungry about making a career in travel, you have to start somewhere. Where InteleTravel comes in is the level and the intensity of the education both weekly and monthly from live events, virtual events, conferences and onboarding programs- we do everything to support our advisors. I think that the model is different and so the industry fear us because of our size, but I see absolutely no harm in creating new sales pipelines that then go on to become very successful travel agents.”
Speaking on the event theme, Ms Handley-Hughes went on to say: “We’ve had two different approaches to this event. The morning session has been about those who want to learn more about Royal Caribbean and build their confidence in selling the product, teaching them to be proactive and understand they can overcome their fears about selling cruise.
“This afternoon’s session is about hand-selecting those advisors who have sold Royal already, who know the system and know the process. We’ve been gathering their feedback about what we need to do as a business to grow the Royal portfolio. Because of the number of advisors we have in the market- RCCL sees this as an opportunity to replicate the success of our relationship in the UK.
“I can certainly say that from this morning the advisors have gone away absolutely buzzing, they’re enthusiastic and can’t wait to get selling! This afternoon has given the opportunity for our advisors to have 1:1s, as well as collaborating and understanding the product in more depth, learning what they can do to increase their presence with Royal Caribbean. It’s been a great day- we’ve completed what we set out to achieve- which is education, confidence building, collaboration and hopefully all resulting in a great performance! Our sales are growing, we’re two years in Ireland now and you can see the progress month after month, so here’s to a successful business in Ireland and long may it carry on!”
