Cunard tells: what agents want?

A T A AE travel agents are “greedy for the commission” when selling luxury liner Cunard, says Int’l Development Director David Rousham.

The Cunard exec made the remark when responding to on a question as to what he’s learnt from the local trade while in Australia this week.

Rousham met with 80 agents on Queen Victoria and 300 off-ship in the past few days, in addition to 10 senior agency executives during a whirlwind trip down under.

The Brit - pictured in Queen Victoria’s Commodore Club on Mon - said consultants prefer a variety of options to promote in Australia, rather than just shorter duration sailings such as the recent three-day QE voyage from Brisbane to Sydney.

“ Agents realise there is not much to make out of those. The trade is actually saying they want a decent mix of cruise lengths because they are greedy for the commission.”

“They don’t want price dumping, they really like the idea of inclusivity Tue , because it means we commercially don’t need to push for our final point of occupancy,” Rousham added.

M AEt, , Rousham said last week’s Brisbane-Sydney sampler voyage, operating via Newcastle had a younger demographic aboard than usual for Cunard.

“They were much younger than we thought & they were spinning on the dance floor til 3am”.