At Karryon HQ, we’re busy keeping up with the constant stream of great travel updates, like this breaking news that tourists can return to our shores this month. What we love equally as much is hearing of the real-life proof that travel is not only back but back enough that shifts in how people are travelling is becoming evident.
A Rise in ‘Experience Stacking’ Travel
In case your memory of travel is buried back in 2019, Silversea Cruises offers ultra-luxurious, all-inclusive cruising across 900+ destinations. They are renowned for their intimate deluxe cruise ships, culinary excellence, and innovative spirit.
As travel confidence and bookings return, Silversea reveals that their innovative approach to Combination Cruises is an ideal match for the shift they have seen in their travel bookings: experience stacking.
Pre-pandemic, multiple trips per year were not unheard of; now ‘experience stacking’ is in. This is when travellers want to experience more in a single trip. Why take two trips (and two rounds of PCR tests and paperwork) when you can take one great one?
Silversea Combination Cruises allow passengers to choose from 125 cruise pairings across all seven continents. This enables them to effortlessly sail for longer – from 14-45 days, in fact.
Combination Cruises cater to the new experience-stacking traveller in more ways than one. Cruise pairing also appeals as Silversea offer an attractive – up to 20% off for every booking! Whether your client is planning a relaxing Mediterranean jaunt or a spectacular sail through Scandinavia, Iceland, or into the Arctic, or an awe-inspiring South American cruise, that’s a significant saving.
A Rise in Revenge Spending
During our border closures, some Australians shifted their travel savings to home renovations and pop-top caravans. However, Silversea have noticed that many Australians appear to have continued to save the same amount of their salary while waiting for the borders to open. Known as ‘revenge spending’, this is phenomenon relates to the unbridled spending that occurs after restrictions have been removed – in this case, post-pandemic restrictions.
Revenge travel spending means travellers have more money saved and are ready to splurge on longer trips, more immersive travel, and creating more life-affirming memories.
Silversea’s Director of Sales, Steve Richards, commented, “Our booking stats are showing a 69% increase in guests booking extended cruising itineraries, like Combination Cruises and Grand Voyages for 2022 and 2023. This is compared to the same period in 2019, when Combination Cruises and Grand Voyages made up 6% of our bookings total; it’s now 16%. We believe this is down to guests waiting so long to travel – it will be three years for some – that they want to go on a longer holiday and make up for lost time.”
Travel Bonus: Get US$1000 in Ship Board Credit
Silversea is not only offering savings of up to 20% for their Combination Cruises, for any February 2022 booking, guests also secure up to US$1,000 shipboard credit per suite! That’s $1,000 to spend on premium beverages, spa experiences, specialty dining, premium shore excursions and more.
Agents: Combination Cruises are Win-Win
You’ll be pleased to know that Silversea’s Combination Cruises are the effortless way to cater to your clients’ new experience stacking and revenge travel spending requirements. With Silversea, everything is neatly handled under one booking, ensuring less work for you, their trusted travel agent. And by everything, they mean the round trip airfares, transfers, pre- and post-cruise hotels, plus all shore excursions!
From an agent perspective, these emerging travel trends are extremely healthy. From an agent perspective, these shift in travel habits are extremely healthy. Silversea’s Steve Richards shared, “This 69% increase in extended travel (from 2019) has great benefits for both the guest and travel agents, as there are discounted options for combination cruises. The jump in booking value delivers more much-needed commission to our valued trade partners.”
This is not an insignificant jump: agents are averaging $2,500 in commissions per booking, with some agents making a whopping $5,000 from a single Silversea booking!
Discover 125 Silversea’s Combination Cruises
As travel confidence soars, update your knowledge of the 125 cruise pairing options offerings in the dedicated Combination Cruise Silversea digital brochure. If these Silversea trends are anything to go by, revenge spending and experience stacking are here to stay. Plus, with the February bonus offer of US$1,000 in shipboard credit, Silversea’s deluxe suites will book up fast.
Click here for more information.
This article was brought to you by:
