Well, it seems the forums are abuzz with the news of a management shift at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Lisa Bauer, the Senior Vice President of Sales, who signed the letter terminating 3 agencies back in October has been moved to Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations.
Most people familiar with the industry and perhaps with Lisa's background see this as a promotion. Maybe a lateral move with a slight upward trend. After all, he background is in resort management. Big resort management. Most companies, when grooming their future leaders will expose them to all the facets of the organization. Most of the people familiar with the industry see this and understand this.
There are others who are less familiar with the industry who feel it is something else. Over the past two days I have heard people explaining what "hotel operations" were on a cruise ship. Here are a few of the ideas:
- She is now in charge of buying the sheets and towels
- She is now in charge of booking your pre and post cruise stays at hotels
- She is now in charge of the Royal Caribbean owned hotels in Alaska
I also find it is strange that the only people who feel it is a downward move are representatives of the three entities that were terminated by RCI in October.
I have heard all sorts of comments about Lisa's decision to "screw" with this company and so forth. Does anyone really believe that Lisa woke up one morning and decided to head into the office and type up a letter before anyone else got in? Do you really believe that the decision was her's alone? Come on, please get real. The decision was her's alone about as much as the petition had on the decision. Laugh if you will but EAB (who has been pretty low key lately) told me that it was the petition that caused RCI and IATAN to make the decisions. Again, come on!
One thing I will say, is that the timing is odd. Lisa was the fontwoman on a very controversial move. She was names one of the 33 most influential people in travel. She was also named Travel Executive of the Year by Travel Trade and received a very long standing ovation. SO why now? I am pretty sure we will never know. It will be interesting to see what happens now going forward.
My crystal ball: a new SVP of Sales will come on board. He will support past decisions and might even further enhance them. Now if CLIA would only make a statement--but that is a lot less clear in my crystal ball!
Now John There you go again. I did not say any such thing. What I did say was when RCCI figured out what had been done and the full extent of their actions, "heads would roll at RCCI".
ReplyDeleteI also said all the actions and attacks, for the most part, where cordinated to have the most damaging effect on our business model and YTB itself. If this can be proven, the legal aspect will be very favorable for our side.
You say all the stars lined up and
these things just happened in the course of doing business. Hopefully for your side, that's true.
I lost someone very dear to me yesterday, yes I have been low-key lately, but I'm still here, watching you my friend.
Thanks for your take on it and the news.
RobertsResorts.Net
"One thing I will say, is that the timing is odd. Lisa was the fontwoman on a very controversial move."
ReplyDeleteYa Think?
It is a lateral move, no upward trend. Not as glamorous as Senior VP of Sales. An important job nonetheless, and still at the Senior VP level.
Well, if this change really means there's going to be any going back on RCL's part we should know by the end of the week. Why would they wait? There's nothing stopping them...except "The Coach", of course.
ReplyDeleteLateral move but now she has 22,000 employees under her direction rather than the much, much smaller Sales Force. One does not move a "problem" into what can be seen as more responsibility.
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS YTB!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYTB International Holds Historic One-Day Cruise Sales Event
December 05, 2007: 12:47 PM EST
WOOD RIVER, Ill., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- YTB International, Inc. ("YTB" or the "Company"), a provider of Internet- based travel booking services for travel agencies and home-based independent representatives in the United States, announced today that it held a successful one-day cruise sales event in November.
During the event, YTB's network of Referring Travel Agents (RTAs) booked more than 12,000 cruise passengers through gift certificates, individual, and group cruises. YTB's efforts marked one of the best single sales days for cruises in the history of the industry.
"With the holidays coming up and the weather getting colder, it seemed like a perfect time to highlight cruises. Everyone starts to think about visiting a warm, sunny destination once temperatures start to drop and the snow starts falling," stated J. Kim Sorensen, President and CEO of YTB Travel Network. "We chose to focus on cruises because of the great level of customer satisfaction reported by passengers we have booked on ships over the years"
Worth repeating: "YTB's efforts marked one of the best single sales days for cruises in the history of the industry."
ReplyDeleteGO YTB!!
Success From Home magazine, January 2008, also features YTB.
ReplyDeleteOf course it does - it's a YTB publication!
ReplyDelete6500 cabins sold with over a 100,000 agents? Sounds like most YTBers didn't make a dime that day.
ReplyDeleteThey sold roughly 6500 cabins with about 150,000 agents? LOL
ReplyDeleteHow many were gift certs, how many were bought by YTB people in the first place. I bet when you break it all down they may have sold 1-2k to outside individuals. Laughable...only a YTBer would be exited by this news.
Jealousy once again rears it's ugly head out of the wood work to take their cheap shots.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Of course it does - it's a YTB publication!"
Only a moron would make such a claim. See the link below.
http://www.successfromhome.com/
I'm not the original poster about the mag...but this sums it up for you...
ReplyDelete"Each issue centers around one successful direct selling company. You can reach our readers monthly or choose to advertise in issues with companies that best target
your audience."
YOU CAN REACH. Thus they pay the mag for the articles or to be in the magazine. Hardly a noteworthy mag. Its just a big advertisement...thats all it is.
I could buy a article in the mag if I wanted to.
get a job fag
ReplyDeleteYa know, to all of us the RCCL YTb issue is a big deal. Just look at the hundreds of posts on blogs and message boards because of it. However,I seriously doubt that a company the size of Royal Caribbean has nothing better to do than worry about whether or not YTB is reinstated or not. In fact, the only people that I have seen that believe that Lisa's new job is punishment for removing YTB, are the YTBers themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhether you agree with it or not, Royal Caribbean made a decision not to to business with card mills. There are potential clients that contact me on a weekly basis that I choose not to do business with because they are not the right client for me.
I understand that YTBers believe that their click and order system is the future, and that the traditional agent is a dying breed. While I cannot speak for all of my peers, I can honestly say that YTB has never been, nor will they ever be a threat to my business. Great service is something that will never go out of style. The type of client that would be interested in a YTB system is the type of person who's only consideration is price. You can have all the price shoppers you want. I won't take them as clients anyway.
I think it says a lot that YTB headquarters has been made aware of the various videos and blogs, and trashy statements that have been made by some of their reps, and have done nothing about it. How many of you would allow an employee or independent contractor of a business with your name on it to post the kind of insults, threats, and trash that has been posted on these blogs?
YTBers are trying to prove that they are better by posting all this crap. If you want respect, try acting in a respectable manner. All you have done with all your trash talk is confirm what we already believed- that mlmers have no place in this industry.
The problem is that there is nobody to oversee the actions of the "cult" YTBers. Its not a real business. They don't "HIRE", "interview" people....so basically any idiot with money can join. You can't control people whom you have no clue about.
ReplyDeleteSUCCESS From HOME is NOT a YTB publication. It is sold on news stands everywhere, and each month, a different home based business is featured in it.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know about our company. We sell 3 day 2 night travel certificates that are used by many companies as incentives. The cost is only 0.35 cents each and they come with your company name and website imprinted on the certificates.
http://www.increasebusinesssales.com
Think about using these for referrals or give them to customers/clients. You can sell them for a profit to your down-line.
The end user of the certificates has a choice of over 20 destinations to pick from. Take a look at the destinations at the website. http://www.increasebusinesssales.com
They pay a processing fee of $12.00 and the taxes on the room which is about $7.00-$12.00 a night depending on the location.
http://www.increasebusinesssales.com
TT:
ReplyDeleteI'm in YTB, and you're right.
Beautiful summation TT.
ReplyDeleteI was at the Travel Trade show in Ft. Lauderdale and in the room when Lisa was awarded the Exec of the Year. I disagree...looking around the room she did NOT receive a "very long standing ovation" whatsoever. But you are correct in that there was a standing ovation...which was only about 25% of the room. I think the main reason for the low standing crowd of support was that she attributed her award to (paraphrased) "standing up for what she believes in and the traditional agent model". That may be why only 25% of the approx. 1000 people in the room stood in support based on the show's report that attendees were made up of 25% traditional agents and 75% home-based agents.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a good point, but not standing and not supporting are two different things.
ReplyDeleteRCCL has supported the Home Based model for a long time and their home based portal is pretty robust. That does not seem like a lack of support to me.
Now if only 25% of the crowd was applauding and the others sat there doing nothing, I would say your observation was spot on.
And I think we can all agree that when someone says "traditional" at this point, they are more likely than not talking about a model that sells and promotes travel--not business opportunities, cars, flowers, and recruiting a downline to feather your own cap
I was at the show also and to me it's not that big of a deal. However, I will agree with the observation and it is quite "spot on"...the standing ovation wasn't very long at all as indicated in the blog. Surely that could not have been witnessed by first hand experience or even researched before being published. But, to John's point, there was other crowd applause by those who chose not to stand for whatever reason upon announcement. Although, when she said what she contributed the award to, the applause at that moment was one that you could clearly see was provided more staunch supporters of her actions. Others did applaud, but I think more because of a domino effect...clapping merely because everyone else was beginning to. It definitely didn't give the impression of warm and fuzzies. I didn't stand because, as a stock holder of RCCI, I don't agree with the decision of what they consider "card-mills". To me it's a reflection of poor management and leadership to not do business with a profit generating agency as a whole who RCCI concludes to have agents that aren’t up to par with their standards. Knowing what I know now, I believe the specific impact should have been investigated with the imposition of individual agent restrictions...just like Carnival and many others do. In response to attendee questions, Carnival, Norwegian, and other panel representatives, made that quite clear in several forums at the show that they support all agents and have systems in place to impose restrictions on a per-agent basis regardless of the Host Agency. Lisa's reasons for her actions is her choice...so be it. However, I did clap out of respect for her accomplishment receiving the award and respect as a person. Her actions against those 3 companies is what it is. Even though I disagree, I don't know her and have no reason to be on that hate wagon.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with John's definition of the "traditional" model. However, a company that seeks to expand its operations and open up multiple streams of revenue is our Free Enterprise system at its best. Why does it matter as to the number of other industries they may also operate in? Heck, look at Donald Trump. He’s known for real estate but also operates his own branded food company, bottled-water company, fragrance company, marketing company…oh and yes, travel company!...just to name a few.
With specific regards to MLM, allowing someone to market and sell your product(s) and in turn expand your distribution base by recruiting others to do the same....that's pure genius!
As reported in Rolling Stone, Starbuck's main product isn't music (just like YTB's isn't cars, flowers, or event tickets). But Starbucks was ranked #2 in music CD sales last year and it wasn't because of a vast selection of CDs to choose from. It was because Starbucks corporate provided entrepreneurs a business opportunity to risk investment dollars to license the Starbuck's brand and open a store which thereby increases Starbuck's footprint and distribution points around the world. It's not one Starbucks selling a lot of CDs, it's a lot of Starbucks selling just a few CDs. I see the same with YTB. An entrepreneurial-minded individual has the ability to risk investment dollars to have the ability to go out and seek other entrepreneurs who would like to open their own travel agency as well. The more entrepreneurs they find, the better. It's all about a lot of agents individually selling a little. As with most duplicatable business systems, an entrepreneur (YTB agent) will make more money by having a share in multiple stores than just their individual store alone.
Oh, and by the way...I watched the movie. The lady that states airlines do not provide free upgrades to 1st Class must not get out much or either needs to change host agencies quick. Out of 6 flights I've taken this year, I was provided a free 1st class upgrade on 4 of those simply by asking the gate agent. The other two were denied either because it was sold out or didn't have an extra seat for my spouse. Granted we had to wait until final boarding to ensure there was no last minute sales, but I didn't mind.
On the topic of music in the last comment, recalling an article I read some 3 years ago about the iPod, I compare the whining of those who feel threatened by YTB similar to that of the cassette tape manufacturers of the 80's when the CD began to emerge. They're hating the company regardless of name because they're capitalizing on an unstoppable industry shift. The music industry changed...LP to 8-track to cassette to CD now to Online Downloads given the Internet. How many corner music stores are in business today compared to those there once was? Seen or been to a Virgin Records store lately? Think those cassette tape manufactures are still in business today? Sure, some are, but their distribution system and target market is extremely limited. My son now drives my old El Camino which has a cassette player. The only place he can find those locally is at the truck stop out on the Interstate.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet revolutionized the music industry just as it's doing to the travel industry. I believe the traditional model's target market of personalized service will definitely be around, but limited and competitive for those agents that don't diversify. It doesn't matter how good of a traditional travel agent one may be, if they fight it and refuse to recognize the shift and take steps to change and adjust with industry trends, they'll find themselves changing careers. I believe most of the tension stems from fear. I think most resent MLM in general regardless of the industry as many see those companies as a personal threat to their survival who are insecure with their ability to adapt to change...just scared they may not have the success their used to. We can all do it though.
As to the video, the woman's comments at the end just don't fit into the story. The YTB guy said he gets discounted hotel rates, and the woman said, "We tried to get upgrades on airlines, and they just don't do it anymore." No one was talking about airlines. Sort of a disconnect, don't you think? An example of slanted reporting. But at least the reporter was fair at the end.
ReplyDelete