OK, not a cruise ship.
A mini tidal wave of cruise companies have hit the affiliate industry recently.
One of my former employers Thomson Cruises has been live at CJ for a few years but in 2010 they have been joined in the affiliate scene by a few others :
- Cruise giant P&O Cruises at Affiliate Window
- Ocean Village also at Affiliate Window
- Cruise.co.uk (who paid $1 million for domain cruises.co.uk) at Affiliate Future
- LowCostCruising.com at Affiliate Window
And from other cruise merchants that have been around longer, easycruise at Affiliate Future also deserve a mention as do DFDS who recently gave me Spotify Premium.
Speaking to an ex colleague about this they expressed surprise that the commission available is so much lower than available to cruise travel agents. Cruise agents are on high commissions yes but they tend to use these to give cash discounts / free parking / free insurance etc. Some cruise companies meanwhile give online discounts so in the future there should be space for affiliates to do OK from cruise.
Much to the relief of many traditional travel agents, online conversion for cruise holidays is rather low and will take a while to increase significantly but it definitely will over time… but think about the basket values… Around a year ago I read that Cruises.co.uk were converting around 10% online (ouch) and highest basket value back then had been £24k!
Possibly Related posts ? :
