| Avalon’s upside-down famil

AVALON Waterways’ first-ever training charter, which came to an end earlier this week (CW 31 Mar), was conceived to “flip the idea of a famil on its head”, as the cruise line eyes the concept’s return for next year.

National account manager Sarah Hoskin told Cruise Weekly that the Avalon training charter aimed to capture less-experienced advisors without prior exposure to river cruising.

“Let’s show that we trust you and that we think this will be great for you because we all know it’s so much easier to sell something once if you’ve experienced it” she said.

“That confidence they’re going to gain from experiencing it for themselves, getting that sort of detailed knowledge – that’s not going to just help that individual agent in their store, but that’s also going to help with that knowledge transfer to the rest of the team.”

“We’re showing that we’re investing in the industry, we’re showing that we’re investing in river cruise.”

National account manager Mitch Spencer told Cruise Weekly the ability to experience the product for a less-experienced agent is key to being able to sell it.

“Our task now will be to put it in the hands of our sales team to make sure the engagement with all the agents on board continues,” he said, adding next year’s return of the concept is the ultimate goal. MS