Agents can make a lot of money  selling cruises so think of the potential earnings that can be achieved by switching clients to a cruise-and-stay holiday says Jane Archer.

With everything from a few days in the music city of Nashville at the start of a river cruise on the Mississippi to a trip to Machu Picchu with a voyage that starts or ends in Peru, the opportunities really are endless; limited by the customers’ time, budget and imagination.

Clients can add a Rocky Mountaineer train ride to a voyage to Alaska, tour Vietnam before journeying along the Mekong river, have a week in one of the Orlando theme parks before a Caribbean cruise from Port Canaveral.

Not that cruise-and-stay holidays have to be long haul or exotic. Customers cruising from Venice to Barcelona, for instance, can add a few days in either city at the start or end of the holiday – or even both. Or they can have a week in a resort hotel in or near their departure port before or after their cruise.

Thomson Cruises is the undoubted champ when it comes to cruise-and-stay options as it can not only harness all the powers of its airline, hotels and cruises to create endless choices, but also use its tour operating know-how to build seamless packages that take clients from the airport to the cruise, then on to the hotel and back to the airport.

Thomson Cruises managing director Helen Caron said around 20% of bookings last year were cruise and stay and this is estimated to rise to about 24% this year. Her target is to increase this to 30%.

Palma is the big seller, mainly because the line has two ships based there each summer, but the Canary Islands and Corfu are also popular, while Jamaica and Dubrovnik, which are new ports for Thomson this winter and summer, are proving a success.

In all, Thomson has 21 hotels in Jamaica for clients to choose from including Sensatori, Couples, A La Carte and family properties. In Dubrovnik it has 15 properties ranging from Couples to Platinum brands.

Caron said: “Cruise and stay is ideal for new-to-cruise passengers as they can hedge their bets, but it attracts regular cruisers and families who want the variety of a vacation combining land and sea. Most people do a seven-night cruise followed by a week in a hotel, but our flying programme means we can offer various durations at most places. To help increase business, Thomson trains its own agents to offer cruise and stay as well as the third party retailers it works with such as Iglu and Cruise.co.uk.

“We invest time to make agents aware of the options; as far as agents are concerned, it offers very good earning opportunities,” Caron said.

Thomson might be the giant when it comes to cruise-and-stay, but almost all cruise lines offer land-based hotels in the embarkation and disembarkation ports that Thomson Cruises managing director Helen Caron suggests ways for agents to convert more clients to cruise and stay holidays.

• Find out what clients like to do on their holiday. Cruise and stay is the perfect choice for a combination of exploring and beach time.

• Don’t assume clients have thought about a cruise and stay holiday. Sell the benefits and explain how flexible it is. With Thomson Cruises, for instance, they can link a seven-night cruise with maybe three, five or seven days in a resort.

• Cruise-and-stay is an ideal introduction to cruising as it allows clients to hedge their bets and ensure they won’t miss out on their land-based holiday.

• Couples who can’t agree whether to have a holiday at sea or on land can find a happy compromise with a cruise-and-stay vacation.

• Use the flexibility of cruise-only prices to package a voyage with a few nights in a hotel in the departure or disembarkation port.

All Aboard

Agents can package up for clients. Voyages to Antiquity even includes a pre and post-cruise hotel with most of its itineraries on the grounds that the destination is all-important for its clients.

Princess Cruises goes one step further, offering a range of pre and post-cruise trips including a one-week tour to Machu Picchu in Peru or a week travelling in Australia ahead of a voyage from Sydney.

One of the most popular cruise tours is a couple of days on the Rocky Mountaineer train in Canada before joining a cruise to Alaska from either Vancouver or Seattle. If clients have time, they can then also add a few nights in Alaska to their end of their holiday.

Both Princess and Holland America Line offer ready-made packages, but agents create their own holidays to suit a client’s individual needs.

A few days at Walt Disney World in Florida is an obvious addition to seven nights’ sailing the Caribbean with Disney Cruise Line but clients can also combine a voyage from Port Canaveral with Universal Studios or a beachside villa in, say, Naples or Tampa.

Closer to home, a favourite option is to package a cruise from Venice with a journey on the Orient Express train from London and a couple of nights in La Serinissima to explore the city. As it operates the train and Cipriani Hotel in Venice, Belmond can put packages together for the trade.