North America’s Full-Service
Leisure Travel Agency
For over 35 years, Expedia CruiseShipCenters had been providing travel agency franchise opportunities for those wanting to provide unrivaled travel expertise and exceptional value, for travelers in their community. In 2020, Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ made a strategic move to rebrand to Expedia Cruises, allowing us to integrate further with Expedia’s powerful tools, technology, and branding.
Expedia Cruises’ unique position allows us to differentiate ourselves over the competition by taking the best of what we have across a proven franchise system of over 35 years – Expedia CruiseShipCenters – and combining it with a powerful and recognized online travel brand – Expedia – to bring the best of both worlds together. Our enhanced omnichannel approach not only gives our customers the ability to book when, where, and how they choose, but gives our franchisees additional and highly valuable lead generation channels.
Expedia is one of the top travel brand in North America, and our franchisees get to reap the benefits! Whether a customer starts their search online on Expedia.com, Expedia.ca, or Expediacruises.com, all cruise inquiries are directed to the customer’s closest Expedia Cruises brick-and-mortar center*; this is in addition to Center walk-ins and a robust marketing program.
Our omnichannel approach unlocks the benefits of our online channel to better service customers offline while simultaneously enabling our offline centers to complement our online offerings. Our transformation to Expedia Cruises gives us a sustained competitive edge over other online travel agencies and retail home-based travel agencies while raising the bar for a superior end-to-end customer experience.
Air, Land & Sea Vacations
At Expedia Cruises, we pride ourselves on being able to do it all! The power of Expedia’s brand, paired with our commitment to exceptional customer service, our omnichannel approach, and our proven franchise model, has helped us grow into a leading seller of travel in North America. Although we specialize in cruise, each Expedia Cruises franchise location is a full-service leisure travel agency.
Our franchisees and their dedicated Vacation Consultants are experts in booking everything from flights, cars, and hotels, to all-inclusive land vacations, luxury rail and coach getaways, and exclusive tours and excursions. Whether a customer is looking to add a pre or post-trip to their cruise, or are seeking a traditional land vacation, our strong supplier relationships with preferred air and land partners have allowed Expedia Cruises to be the go-to travel agency for every customer’s vacation needs.
Plus, Expedia Cruises franchisees enjoy tremendous buying power with every cruise line and land supplier. This means that you’ll earn some of the highest commissions in the industry.
We have always been more than cruise, and that’s true now more than ever.
Varying Customer Needs
While booking travel online can be stressful for any type of trip, it’s especially daunting for cruise and land vacations. Although hotel rooms, planes, and rental cars are fairly straight-forward — cruises, coach and rail tours, packaged vacations and safaris are not as simple.
First, they are generally more expensive. The average cruise guest spends over $3,800 on their vacation while the average coach, land, or rail vacations can be upwards of $3,500 per person! Second, they are more complicated. When booking complex travel, shoppers prefer to be able to speak to an experienced travel agent who is willing to take the time to learn their preferences and steer them toward the best travel options. A cruise that suits high-energy millennials might be a nightmare for a group of retirees who want to relax. A rail tour through the Rockies could be enhanced by the addition of a pre or post land tour. It’s complicated – our cruise and land customers understand this, which is why they come to us!
A Business Built To Scale
An important differentiator of the Expedia Cruises franchise model is that it is very scalable. Our retail locations allow our travel agency franchise owners to build a team of independent Vacation Consultants who share their knowledge and work together to drive sales. As an Expedia Cruises franchise owner, you support your travel agents and earn a share of the commissions – the bigger and more successful your team is, the stronger your financial return.
While selling travel directly, and earning the full commission yourself, is the fastest route to $1,000, we encourage franchisees to become travel leaders. Being a leader is the fastest path to $1,000,000 by allowing you to build a team wit
*Cruise inquiries from Expedia.com, Expedia.ca and Expediacruises.com are routed at Expedia’s discretion and based on information provided by the customer. Additionally, Centers must meet specific criteria outlined by the Franchisor in order to receive these leads.