How to Sell More Cruises
Repeat clients, referrals, celebrations and groups: where the next booking comes from.
Marketing ToolkitHow to sell more cruises is mostly a question of what happens after the first sale. New clients are expensive to find; happy clients come back and bring friends.
How to Sell More Cruises: Repeat, Refer, Celebrate, Group
Repeat clients
Keep notes on every trip — what they loved, what they did not — and use them to suggest the next one at the right time.
Referrals
A traveler who had a great cruise tells friends. Make it easy for them to pass on your name.
Celebrations
Anniversaries, milestone birthdays, retirements and graduations are natural reasons to cruise; note the dates.
Groups
One organizer can bring a family, a club or a congregation. Groups multiply the work, and the bookings.
Turning One Booking Into Several
A family reunion booked as a group, a group of friends celebrating a fiftieth birthday, a club that sails together every year: groups are one of the clearest answers to how to sell more cruises. Cruise lines generally offer group terms once a set number of cabins is booked together — often around eight on mainstream lines, but policies differ — and those terms can include benefits that individual bookings do not get. Read each line’s group policy carefully, because deposits, name changes and release dates work differently from individual bookings.
The sales skill is the same as with one couple, applied to many people: qualify the organizer, match a ship that works for the whole group, present clearly and keep everyone informed. Marketing a group to fill it is a different job; our sister site Sellers of Cruises covers how to organize and promote a group cruise.
Stay in Touch the Right Way
- A welcome-home call within a week of the trip.
- A short note on the anniversary of their sailing, or of the occasion they celebrated.
- An alert when a line, region or ship they mentioned has a promotion.
- A regular newsletter with real offers, not just pictures — our own Mister Cruise cruise-offers newsletter is one example of the format.
- An invitation to an event: a cruise night, a webinar or a ship visit.
Keep contact useful and occasional. Clients unsubscribe from noise, but they keep the advisor who sends the right offer at the right time. If you send marketing email, follow the U.S. CAN-SPAM rules; our sister site Sellers of Cruises explains the basics.
Repeat and Referral Questions
Where do most repeat cruise bookings come from?
From clients who had a great trip and were remembered afterwards. Staying in touch — a welcome-home call, a note on their anniversary, an alert when a sailing they mentioned goes on sale — keeps you in mind when they are ready to go again.
How do I ask for referrals without feeling pushy?
Ask at the right moment, usually right after a client tells you how much they enjoyed the trip. A simple “If you know anyone thinking about a cruise, I would be glad to help them too” is enough.
Travelers: Planning a Group or a Celebration?
Reunions, milestone birthdays, clubs and family groups — our cruise advisors at Mister Cruise will find a ship that suits everyone, with free quotes.
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