| Travel Partners with Ecruising group

A new avenue for independent
travel agents to expand their
cruise sales has opened, with
the creation of a partnership
between the Ecruising group
and Travel Partners.
THE new partnership agreement formed
between the pair includes the stipulation that
Ecruising’s wholesale division,
cruiseagents.travel, will act as Travel Partners
exclusive wholesale cruise provider.
An all Australian company, Travel Partners
opened its doors in Jul last year, providing
independent travel agents who want to
establish their own travel consultancy with a
platform from which to operate, including
support, travel product and information
technology systems.
Speaking about Travel Partners latest venture,
managing director, Jeff Hakim told Cruise
Weekly that the company had entered into the
partnership as a strategic move to increase the
booking capacity of Travel Partner agents.
Hakim told Cruise Weekly that whilst the
company is an experienced provider of cruise
product, the partnership would enhance its
cruise services “because cruiseagents.travel
will be providing selected and exclusive cruise
itineraries to the cruise network”.
The agreement, according to Hakim, will mean
better deals and also exclusive deals for its
agents, in addition to better commission rates.
“We see a big future for cruising with our
Travel Partner network,” he said.
As part of the deal Travel Partners will have
access to Ecruising’s technology cruise
platform which incorporates live pricing and
API feeds which will give Travel Partners home
based agents real time pricing for most lines.
“It means they can compete in the open
market not just with price but superior
product range and technology,” said Brett
Dudley the founder and chairman of the
Ecruising group.
Although the company has always dealt with
independent agents, Ecruising, according to
Dudley, is currently in similar discussions with
other companies to offer its portfolio of air,
cruise and hotel product “to give them a
competitive edge over the bigger chains”.
“That’s what we are about, giving agents a
democratic option,” he said.
“The growth of the independent professional
travel agent is growing exponentially and they
are prolific bookers of cruise product.
“The agreement clearly indicates we are on
the road to open the awareness that a cruise
holiday is a great option for agents to sell to
their clients, especially packages like ours that
really all the agents have to do is sell and we
do the rest,” he added.