Royal Caribbean has revealed how it plans to work with its agent partners following this month’s launch of Icon of the Seas

Speaking to Cruise Trade News, Ben Bouldin, vice president EMEA of Royal Caribbean, said the line will begin its agency campaign for the year with the return of its Seminar at Sea programme, which will see more than 400 agents from across the EMEA region invited on board.

“Icon is the best ship in the world and [agents] need to know about it and they need to be able to sell it,” said Bouldin. “We’ve always been very well supported and travel agents have always been great at helping new customers understand why cruising is for them. That’s massively important.”

The immersive event is aimed exclusively at agents who are new to the sector and is designed to train them on all aspects of cruise while giving them the opportunity to experience the ship’s features themselves.

“We take 400+ agents who’ve never sailed with Royal Caribbean and totally immerse them. I love doing that because the experiences, feelings and emotions you have [when you cruise] – imagine 400 people coming on board and experiencing those feelings and using that to turn them into lean, mean selling machines for your brand. It’s fantastic to inject the marketplace with that sort of knowledge.”

The event, which is still in the planning stages, will follow a similar format to last year’s event, which took place from 7-11 May 2023 on Symphony of the Seas and included bespoke, multi-language training sessions, activities and the chance to experience one of Royal’s productions.

Agents ‘massively important’ to Royal Caribbean, says UK boss

Bouldin went on to emphasise how vital agency relationships are to Royal Caribbean. “Agents continue to be massively important to Royal Caribbean so we do a lot to support them,” he said.

“We have the Club Royale programme, which I believe is the best agent loyalty scheme in the UK and we now have Learn, which is a full-on portal for agents to learn about our product.”

This comes following the announcement of Royal Caribbean’s partnership with Eurovision, which offers agents the chance to win tickets to the 2024 song contest. Agencies across the UK and Ireland are in with the chance to secure a hosted trip to the event which will take place in Malmö, Sweden this May.

Running from 18 January to 29 February, the competition will see winners bag return flights, a hosted two-night getaway, dining and a VIP hospitality ticket at one of the four Eurovision events.

Bouldin continued: “This incredible two-night VIP experience of Eurovision will enable our trade partners to access an event which has an insane waiting list for tickets.

“This is the single biggest tv moment in the calendar year globally and we’ve got 38 tickets for UK-based agents to get their place booked.

“I think we offer a lot to agents, we’re never complacent and we never take them for granted and we’re keen to make sure they have the chance to experience and learn about these ships.”

World football superstar Lionel Messi joined Royal Caribbean’s Michael Bayley and Jason Liberty for Icon of the Seas’ official naming ceremony last night (23 January).