Cruise Planners Hosts Luxury Forum at Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen, Mexico
CORAL SPRINGS, FLA., Aug. 16, 2024 – Cruise Planners, the nation’s largest home-based travel franchise network, recently hosted the highly anticipated Luxury Forum at the breathtaking Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen. This prestigious event, running from August 5th-9th brought together more than 120 Cruise Planners travel advisors and over 70 luxury suppliers, all dedicated to offering invaluable training and resources to help advisors effectively market, find luxury clients and sell luxury products.
Cruise Planners travel advisors have become prominent sellers of luxury travel and vacations over the last several years, with many advisors specializing in this highly lucrative niche. Franchisees and supplier partners at the Luxury Forum shared best practices when it comes to boosting travel sales, and how to attract, service, and maintain luxury clients.
“Luxury travel is more popular than ever, with many clients choosing to splurge for exceptional experiences,” said Michelle Fee, CEO and founder of Cruise Planners. “Our advisors are highly trained and knowledgeable in this area, guiding clients to their ultimate luxurious vacations. Events like these only strengthen their sales acumen and ability to deliver unparalleled travel experiences.”
The three-day event was hosted by CEO and founder of Cruise Planners, Michelle Fee, and Chief Strategy Officer, Scott Koepf. It commenced with an enthusiastic welcome from Fee, who highlighted the increasing demand for luxury travel, noting that there are 28 million luxury travelers in the marketplace and luxury travel is a $230 billion business. Fee also emphasized that the demand for travel has remained strong even years after the pandemic, with travelers increasingly adopting a luxury mindset, seeking more personalized and exclusive experiences.
To support their advisors in reaching these discerning travelers, Cruise Planners offers a suite of sophisticated tools and programs. These include Insight Codes, a powerful data mining tool that gives advisors a unique advantage by identifying who their luxury clients are, and a Direct Mail Program featuring nine dedicated luxury mail pieces. Additionally, Cruise Planners provides a Live Planner Presenting Tool that helps advisors present luxury travel options in a compelling manner. These are just a few of the resources that empower Cruise Planners’ advisors to “walk-the-walk, and talk-the-talk” when it comes to serving luxury clients.
Throughout the event, attendees had access to exclusive training sessions led by industry experts, offering insights into the latest luxury travel trends and strategies. The keynote speaker, Karl Kannstadter, VP of Content Strategy-Exploration for Signature Travel Network, gave a presentation on who the luxury traveler is in the space of active adventure and expedition market such as polar region cruising and beyond. The networking opportunities enabled advisors to build strong relationships with top luxury suppliers, ensuring they can offer their clients the best possible travel experiences.
Fee hosted a Luxury Agent Panel featuring top producers experienced in this niche market. They shared their best practices and ideas for achieving success in the luxury travel sector. Advisors included Sue Palenik, Jason Poole, Dave Rodrigues, and Kim Wilt, who all shared their tips-and-tricks on how best to succeed in selling luxury travel. In addition, Koepf hosted supplier panels with some of the top luxury brands in the world.
Advisors were also able to have a unique networking event at the pool and cabana area, allowing them to chat in a more relaxed setting to wrap up the event.
The Luxury Forum is an annual event offered by Cruise Planners along with a Land Symposium focusing on land sales. Cruise Planners offers numerous in-person training opportunities throughout the year to aid in professional growth and development for their franchisees.
About Cruise Planners
Cruise Planners was founded in 1994 and is the nation’s largest home-based travel agent franchise network. As a leader in the travel franchise industry, Cruise Planners positions a nation-wide network of 2,500 franchise owners for success by providing innovative marketing programs, proprietary and cutting-edge booking, and technology tools, as well as professional development and hands-on training with the industry’s top executives. The company continues to be an industry leader and was named the No.1 travel franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 18 consecutive years and awarded by Franchise Business Review as “Best-In-Category” for 2 years.
Franchise Business Review also ranked Cruise Planners #3 OVERALL on their list of Top 200 Franchises of 2022. Cruise Planners was recently featured in Entrepreneur as one of the top 30 franchise innovators in technology, has been consistently named as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by the South Florida Business Journal, is on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and was recognized as one of the Top Workplaces by the Sun Sentinel.
Visit our website, www.cruiseplanners.com, for more information or to view the complete list of awards and honors. For those interested in becoming a franchise owner, please visit https://www.cruiseplannersfranchise.com/.