With commissions being among the highest in the industry, selling a cruise can be big business for a travel agent. 

But did you know you could be a travel agent in your spare time, and specialise in cruise, by simply investing in a franchise?

Robert Craig joined The Travel Franchise in 2021 and runs his home-based Not Just Travel agency in Scotland alongside his full-time job as a sales and marketing director.

“My travel agency business supplements my main income so that I can use what I get from selling travel to go on nice holidays multiple times a year.”

Although he books all sorts of holidays from packages to multi-centre long-haul trips, he particularly enjoys selling cruises and says it’s one of the most lucrative parts of his travel agency business. 

“Cruise is definitely a great place to be for a margin,” says Robert. “And once you’ve got a cruise customer, if they make another cruise booking onboard (when deals are amazing), the commission literally gets passed back to you. So you get repeat business pretty easily - and I’ve not come across anyone yet that’s not enjoyed the cruise they went on and not booked onboard.”  

As one of the fastest growth areas in travel, with more than 19 ships being launched in 2023, The Travel Franchise helps agents show know nothing about cruise to specialise and make money through its 12-month Cruise Mastery Programme. 

“In just 12 months, agents who know nothing about the sector can become a ‘master of cruise’ and reap the benefits,” says The Travel Franchise/Not Just Travel co-founder Paul Harrison. 

“Via a series of seminars and training we enable our agents to better sell an book cruise holidays. Plus, we offer those who sign up numerous opportunities for exclusive ship tours and, due to our close relationships with our Key Trade Partners, agents get the opportunity to set sail themselves to experience the product and service first-hand.”

Robert is one such agent who has just done that. In fact, having signed up to the Cruise Mastery Programme, he was among one of the first passengers onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s new luxury ship, Prima, when he attended The Travel Franchise’s first Seminar at Sea, a week-long company cruise onboard the new luxury ship, where, as well as enjoying the cruise, he also attended workshops and tours from experts. The Travel Franchise currently has another company cruise with a Seminar at Sea planned next month in June with Virgin Voyages. It is also organising a company cruise onboard MSC’s new ship Euribia in October.