Explora Journeys, the new luxury cruise brand from the MSC Group, has today opened its online Travel Agency Hub, a cutting-edge initiative designed to strengthen its ties with the travel agent community.
Michael Ungerer, CEO of Explora Journeys, said: “Our new Travel Agent Hub represents another important step towards our vision for the future and our goal, in line with our extensive research to design a maritime experience like no other. We have created a best-in-class, user-friendly digital experience for travel agents, demonstrating how easy it is to collaborate with Explora Journeys. We are convinced of the brand’s great potential to develop a new style of luxury travel and will therefore continue to invest in its expansion to offer our passengers what we call an ‘immersive experience at sea’.”
To design the Explora Journeys Travel Agency Hub, we incorporated input from the agents themselves. The result is a valuable and highly relevant tool that includes the following sections:
- The Reservations Suite: an online booking tool that allows agents to search and book trips according to their clients' preferences, select suites, view prices, and generate plans and budgets.
- The Training Suite: an excellent online training tool that provides intuitive access to a wide variety of sections, where agents will learn how to communicate the Explora Journeys story. They will also have access to practical tips and be able to create action plans with specific clients in mind.
- The Marketing Suite: a repository of digital and printable materials designed exclusively for travel agents and their clients. Materials include banners, brochures, image galleries, logos, videos, social media content recommendations, and templates for printing or emailing.
- The Performance Suite: a control panel where agents can view their bookings and learn about the profitability and commissions they will earn through the new system being implemented at Explora Journeys; as well as get to know the team and access information about their contacts.
- Headlines: news and updates from Explora Journeys, including benefits for travel agents and, starting in 2022, information on onboard and destination experiences.
Explora Journeys has received tremendous support from the travel agent community worldwide, which has materialized with the first confirmed bookings from the US companies Cruiseosity and Cassis Travel Services.
Chris Austin, Head of Sales at Explora Journeys, added: “We are proud to announce this new step in the company’s growth. It’s another example of how Explora Journeys puts its travel agent community first. After a year of development, we are thrilled to launch the platform. We will continue to listen to travel agents so we can incorporate helpful resources that further enhance the experience of working with Explora Journeys.”
The Travel Agency Hub follows in the footsteps of Explora Journeys' exclusive and innovative "By Appointment" , launched in September—one of the company's many novel initiatives. This service allows travel agents to schedule an appointment with an Explora Journeys ambassador to learn more about and book one or more of its eight initial voyages during the first year of EXPLORA I, including its inaugural voyage in May 2023.
