Norwegian Cruise Line has announced that it will amend its base commission to 10% in the UK market effective from 1 January 2013, whereby it joins Royal Caribbean and Carnival groups that have unveiled a similar move earlier.
The move reinforces Norwegian’s commitment to the UK trade, through its Partners First philosophy, as it develops new ways to ensure fairness, greater price parity, less confusion for customers and an increase in the number of agents selling cruise. In addition, Norwegian will reward travel agents with incremental earning opportunities through performance-based incentives.
Francis Riley, Vice President and General Manager International for Norwegian Cruise Line said, “By amending our commission rates, we believe this will help bring a stop to the discounting culture that is currently widespread in the UK cruise market. We hear daily from customers about the confusion and uncertainty of what, where and when to book. We believe the revised business model, developed with our trade partners in mind and in discussions with them, is an investment in the future success and earning potential of travel agents.”
Riley also added, “Moving to 10% and putting in place policies to police the rebating will help to attract new travel agents to the market who in the past have felt they were unable to compete with the big discounters. One of the cornerstones of driving incremental demand for our product is in building travel agent advocacy and having travel partners excited about selling Norwegian Cruise Line. With our recent announcement of another new ship joining the fleet with an option for a second ship, travel agents are and will continue to remain the lifeblood of Norwegian and I sincerely hope this move will make it fairer and more profitable for travel partners overall.”
For 2013, the company will continue to make major investments into joint marketing funds as a further commitment to the travel trade and to further reinforce its commitment to price parity in the market, the company will remove its five percent online discount on www.ncl.co.uk from 1st January 2013.
