| RCI’s Homeport to become ‘Club Royal’

ROYAL Caribbean International’s (RCI) ‘Club Royal’ travel partner platform, previously known as ‘Homeport’, will see the cruise line work more closely and personally with its travel advisor partners, according to Vice President & Managing Director Gavin Smith (pictured).

Speaking exclusively with Cruise Weekly yesterday, Smith said the cruise line recognised the difficulty of the return to full-time service for agents.

He said the reinvigorated and renamed Club Royal would offer more personalised help to RCI’s agent partners, with many of them having lost staff during the pandemic.

“In the background, we’ve taken that opportunity to develop a loyalty program for travel consultants, that will allow us to work with them on an individual basis, rather than necessarily through a network or through a buying group,” Smith explained.

“We will be able to recognise their loyalty to the Royal Caribbean brand by offering them individual incentives, be it enhanced commission, be it early information about program releases, be it about being able to identify consultants who should come on famils with us.

“It should allow us to have a more personal relationship with travel consultants and technology enables that,” he enthused.

Also providing agents a boost ahead of wave season is RCI’s ‘RoyalUp’ bid-based stateroom upgrade program (CW yesterday), under which already booked passengers can make offers to upgrade to a higher stateroom category.

Not only will agents receive full commission on the upgrade amount for successful bids, but they can also go to market with a competitively priced opportunity at the lower end of the ship for later bookers.

RoyalUp also protects the most expensive premium accommodation opportunities for both the cruise line and the agent, Smith said.