“Bookings are coming in by the boatload”: How one travel advisor navigates the highs and lows of the cruise charter niche

Fortunately it’s by no means occurred to journey advisor Religion Sproule. However after years of chartering river cruises, she’s savvy sufficient to take issues sluggish and regular, and to comply with her personal finest practices.

We first wrote about Sproule’s river cruise charters back in 2018, when she was busy promoting a March 2019 ‘Alan Doyle on the Danube’ cruise, headlined by the Nice Large Sea singer-songwriter. That crusing went off with no hitch.

Now 4 years and one pandemic later, Sproule – proprietor of Dartmouth, NS-based Area of interest Journey Group – continues to be at it, and nonetheless working with Doyle and his Alan Doyle Trio crew for extra constitution sailings. Once we caught up with Sproule lately, bookings had been “coming in by the boatload – actually.” She’s simply again from an Oct. 24 – 31 crusing with AmaWaterways with musicians Doyle and Matt Andersen. And looking forward to 2023, she’s reserving an element constitution with the Halifax Chamber of Commerce, and one other full constitution with Doyle in France.

On this newest October 2022 crusing, passengers took half in an public sale and raised $28,000 for the Greenback a Day Basis (https://adollaraday.ca/), the charity that Doyle and two buddies began to help Canadian grassroots organizations that assist folks with psychological well being and dependancy issues. “That was the tenth time I cried glad tears on that cruise,” says Sproule.

Proof that area of interest journey may be not simply profitable, however fulfilling too.

Learn on for Sproule’s recommendation on placing collectively and advertising cruise charters, and the rewards (and potential pitfalls) …

Travelweek: Has it been troublesome to drum up curiosity in these charters at this level within the pandemic, or fairly the other?

Sproule: “The October 2022 crusing was rebooked twice (2020 and 2021) on account of COVID, as such we have now been on a waitlist for nicely over a yr. I count on the 2023 crusing to maneuver fairly rapidly with our massive waitlist and family and friends of present friends. Over 80% of our 2019 friends rebooked so if we have now that continued success the 2023 crusing ought to fill inside a month.”

Travelweek: You’ve had different profitable charters previously. They sound like an important income supply. What are the challenges, and the advantages?

Sproule: “The advantages could be income, if it really works. The challenges are many. There’s no income in any respect except you sail nearly full. That signifies that you might do work for 18 months and nonetheless find yourself crusing with 10 – 15 empty cabins and have made zero income, you might even be at a loss. Even friends who pay the deposit might cancel at ultimate cost and you end up caught with 30 cabins to promote.

“My greatest tip is that in the event you choose the fallacious provider as your associate and they don’t seem to be prepared to work with you to navigate the challenges of constitution teams, you might find yourself with a catastrophic monetary loss. Select your companions properly. I can not say sufficient about AmaWaterways and their distinctive stage of service and help. They offer us a lot flexibility to customise the crusing to go well with our area of interest wants. They’ve a constitution division to take care of these teams particularly and are nice to work with. We additionally had an important expertise with Emerald Waterways for smaller teams of 20 to 30 cabins.”

Travelweek: How do you get the ball rolling with advertising a brand new constitution, and is there plenty of word-of-mouth as soon as issues get going?

 Sproule: “We’ve had nice success with social media advertising and use of our weekly publication. We additionally make sure that to have an important relationship with our musician companions on these charters as they’re the draw and have the contacts to promote these sailings correctly. You can spend 1000’s in promoting with little or no return so I counsel all brokers be very selective the place they spend their hard-earned advertising {dollars}.”

Travelweek: What do river cruise corporations try this’s actually useful for brokers placing collectively charters, and what may they do to make the expertise even higher?

Sproule: “AmaWaterways gives wonderful costs for full ship and half charters and their groups right here in Canada and California go above and past to assist their most well-liked company companions. They supply wonderful agent charges to get you in your ships to raised perceive the product that can assist you promote. And I’ve discovered that not like different corporations, they’ll work with you if challenges come up.

“Emerald Waterways’ Teams can also be very accommodating and they’re nice at getting brokers on board to expertise their product.

“I’ve heard wonderful issues about Uniworld as nicely. We need to attempt ocean crusing in 2024/2025 and I’ve been in touch with a couple of premium and luxurious ocean cruise strains.”