Why Use a Travel Agent? Carnival’s CEO Sounds Off

It’s one of the questions we get the most – why should I use a travel agent? There are many reasons and we’ve even dedicated a whole page of our website to this question. But we love it when someone in the industry (especially at one of our suppliers) tells customers to go to us, not directly to them.

Recently Cruise Week featured an interview with Arnold Donald, Carnival Corporation’s CEO, about the importance of travel agents. In the big picture, Donald believes that five years from now agents are going to be as important, if not more important, than they are today:

“It’s because cruise is still a complex purchase,” he says. “It’s not like going online, looking at a bunch of shoes, and picking one pair and sending it back if they don’t actually fit, it’s not like that. It’s like a zillion decisions to make, it’s a lot of choices with nuances that really make a difference, and I just think people need that contact with an expert consultant.”

He compares it to financial planning: “It’s like you can go online and manage all of your own finances, but most people would be served better if they had a professional financial advisor. And you know if you’re going to do a cruise for real, you kind of need a professional cruise advisor, because it takes a lot of time to try and do all that stuff on your own.”

Getting consumers to use an agent benefits everyone involved in terms of guest satisfaction and generating repeat customers. “The right travel agent will save you a ton of time, and get you much better information, accurate information, and give you perspective so that you’ve increased the probability you’re going to have a great experience,” says Donald.

We’re proud to call Mr. Donald both a colleague and a friend and we are very grateful for his support of the travel agent community. Remember – when you book with Premier Custom Travel you never pay more and you get our expertise and guidance every step of the way at no extra charge.