DALLAS — Ensemble Travel Group is teaming up with Carnival Cruise Line to boost members’ cruise business and expand the cruise line’s distribution channel in the Canadian and U.S. agency markets.
The new multi-year preferred supplier partnership was announced by Ensemble’s Co-Presidents, Libbie Rice and Lindsay Pearlman, at the organization’s 2017 Ensemble Travel Group International Conference in Dallas earlier this week.
Rice said the timing was right on several fronts to formalize the partnership with Carnival. “We talked during our keynote speech in Dallas about the Ensemble evolution, but that also applies to suppliers,” said Rice. “Carnival’s engaged leadership team, solid investment in agency technology, sales support, and fleet renovation, and most importantly, its clear commitment to the agency community are all key ingredients in a successful business partnership moving forward.”
This year’s conference welcomed approximately 900 members, suppliers and guests, and focused on the theme ‘Think Big’.
“Last year was the best year in our history from a North American profit-sharing perspective,” said Pearlman. “But taking a step back, what’s even more impressive, we came back from the recession with a vengeance by delivering the strongest seven-year performance in our company’s history.”
The two Co-Presidents also discussed Ensemble’s most recent value propositions, including Aviate (an airline booking tool and overall air program), Navigate (integrated booking platform powered by Revelex), Marketing (a strategy under development and led by Ensemble newcomer Carl Schmitt), and Extranet (the go-to portal for all things Ensemble).
Extranet was officially launched in August and continues to gain in popularity. When compared to last year, the platform has seen a 61% increase in sessions, and a 42% jump in users versus the same time last year, plus an increase of 102% in page views. Also, the amount of time spent on the Ensemble Extranet has increased by 33%, and the bounce rate has dropped by 15%.
According to Pearlman, the technology has delivered on three major components: a fast, reliable search engine, a mobile-friendly design with logical content organization, and the ability to market content to customers easily.
“The universal search capability, in particular, is getting high marks from members because it draws across all travel products to integrate rich content and special offers into the results,” he said. “It’s kind of like having your very own Google search bar where you just type in, let’s say, Alaska cruises, and up come all your options. And once you find what you’re looking for, you can share, email and post it on social media straight from the site. You can also print and download your findings into Excel to easily compare all of the options, or in the case of cruise, you can click ‘Book’ and go straight into Navigate.”
Pearlman and Rice closed their keynote with a shout out to its team members and preferred partners. Since last conference, 42 new members have joined Ensemble’s network in Canada and the U.S. They also recognized the more ‘tenured’ members’, citing 16 agencies belonging to Ensemble for more than 40 years, and another 18 agencies with 30-plus years of membership.
Ensemble welcomed 13 new preferred partners in 2017, including: Druk Travel Service; Essence of Iceland; Pelican New Orleans; Stupak Las Vegas; The Dutchman; Just You; Butterfield & Robinson; Park’N Fly; Hawaiian Airlines; Norwegian Air; TAP Portugal; Eva Airways; and Onefinestay.com.
Moreover, the Ensemble Hotel & Resort Collection welcomed more than 100 new properties this year, including the following five-star standouts: Hassler Roma (Rome), The Brando (Tetiaroa, Tahiti), and The K Club (Kildare, Ireland).
