Comments on: Carnival Corp.’s Arison on cruise commission cuts? No way

By: Dennis Schaal

Dennis Schaal — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:50:04 +0000

Douglas: That 70% figures jives with some anecdotal bits and pieces I received after I wrote the above story. I would imagine the percentage will be falling in the years ahead, no? Conjecture, I know.

I think Carnival’s recent move to limit keyword bidding on its trademarks, as referenced in the Travel Weekly link in the above story, is an attempt to hold down Carnival’s paid-search costs as it tries to drive more direct traffic.

And, yes, Carnival says its cruise commission expense fell over the last year and I would imagine that the increase in NCFs played a role.

By: Douglas Quinby

Douglas Quinby — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:38:16 +0000

Dennis,
One point missing here is NCFs, or non-commissionable fares, elements of the cruise booking which are not commissionable. These have increased over the years, so there has been some indirect reduction in commission expense across the industry.

PhoCusWright has channel segmentation data for the cruise market in aggregate. Traditional travel agencies (excluding OTAs) represent 70% of sales in 2009. More detail here: http://tinyurl.com/yalawua

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Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:16:49 +0000

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