Travelocity to Staff Hospitality Desks Aboard Cruise Ships

Travelocity launched a program where it will staff its own hospitality desk on about 40 sailings this year with Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises and Holland America Line on routes to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada/New England, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal and Europe with the first sailings departing this month.

The hospitality desk for the Travelocity Onboard Program is designed to service only passengers who booked through Travelocity, said Cathy Dooling, Travelocity´s cruise marketing manager.

The Travelocity employee on each sailing will serve as a liaison to the cruise line, will help with issues like transfers, recommend shore excursions, and be able to book future cruises for Travelocity clients, Dooling said.

“We are not trying to duplicate what the lines are doing,” Dooling said. “We will sell to our own customers. We can help with that.”

On the same sailings, Travelocity will operate a similar –but not identical- program for the AARP called the AARP Passport Cruise Collection. That program expands the relationship between the seniors´ organization and Travelocity, which powers a co-branded travel Web site for the AARP (www.travelocity.com/AARP/home).

A Travelocity employee will staff an AARP hospitality desk on the same sailings, although it will be separate from the Travelocity Onboard desk.

Both programs come with perks, which range from prepaid gratuities to shipboard credits, Travelocity stated.