On The Deck: Mike Bonner

Silversea Cruises is a name which holds high regard throughout the cruise sector. It sits within the upper echelons of the industry’s luxury market – the so called Ultra-luxury offering – alongside the likes of Seabourn and Crystal Cruises. So with competition so fierce between its competitors, how do these brands compete? For Silversea the answer lies not just in the level of service – which is a given – but also its itineraries – and, more specifically, the extension to its brand which covers expedition cruising and also puts it in competition with firms like Compagnie du Ponant. So why should a passenger sail with Silversea over any of the other three brands we’ve mentioned that occupy similar ground? Cruise News caught up with Mike Bonner, general manager of Silversea for UK, Ireland and the Middle East to discuss the brand’s USP, its new commission structure and the all new Galapagos vessel.

Could you tell me about your role and what that entails?
I’m the general manager of Silversea for the UK, Ireland and Middle East – my own responsibility is looking mainly after the commercial arm of UK and Ireland. It’s all the sales and marketing, reservations, guest relations – anything that is linked to revenue generation. Enough to keep me busy and 2012 was a very busy year for us.

What’s the split between direct and agency sales?
About 15% of our sales are done directly. It varies by market but we are a very trade friendly team. There are always going to be customers who wish to book directly but that’s no secret and we have four people who take calls within our team. We will also ask if the customer wants to hand the business back to the travel agent. There is no advantage of booking direct with versus booking with a travel agent.

Do you expect that to continue?
Yes, we don’t envisage much change in that. The direct side of our business has grown in recent years , as most cruise lines have seen, and it will probably grow a little bit more but we have always been big supporters of the trade and will continue to be.

What developments have you got underway for 2013?
The big news for us is the new product – the Silver Galapagos. Our fleet is fundamentally split into two parts – we have our ‘classic’ fleet which is five ships operating the sun and going to different parts of the world in a more traditional sense, and we have our two expedition ships. This started in 2008 with the Silver Explorer which operates around the Polar Regions, West Africa and Asia; this has been so successful that we’ve been on the look out for a second expedition ship for a while now. We’ve now acquired a ship which operates in the Galapagos and will be renamed the Silver Galapagos.

What will the ship offer?
The ship will operate two separate itineraries on two different parts of the Galapagos. One is designed to see more birdlife while the other will be more centred on wildlife. We opened the books on that a few weeks ago and so far it’s been very good. We’ll be running some programmes early next year to get some more information out there – for example the amount of repeat bookings that agents can get with expedition cruises, something a lot of agents perhaps don’t realise.

Who is your typical customer? 
The average age is between 55-60 – perhaps a little bit younger on our expedition cruises. They’re Normally empty nesters, although we’re seeing multi-generational cruisers more and more, so grandparents taking grandchildren. They are well travelled and normally know a lot more about the world than we do and would typically stay in the very best hotels and eat in the best restaurants.

You mentioned multi-generational cruising, how well do you cater for children?
We don’t advertise ourselves as a family product as such but at certain times of the year we have people on board our bigger ships – the Silver Spirit for instance – that are trained to look after children. We don’t have the water slides and theme parks but some seven-day Mediterranean cruises will naturally have a younger clientele, especially during the summer holidays. There is an age limit on the expedition cruises where children have to be at least six because of the zodiacs.

Would a passenger with mobility issues have any problems with your cruises? 
They would have none with our classic cruises however we say that passengers sailing on our expedition ships need to have a basic level of fitness. You can come on the cruise but you won’t necessarily enjoy it if you’re in a wheelchair. You won’t be able to get in and out of a zodiac for instance. We aren’t making people climb up rock faces with pickaxes but there is a level of active involvement.

So your message to agents would be to sell the right cruise to the right person?
Absolutely and that’s why we have an online academy where we train agents who can pass and get certification. We see a lot of the regular agents making sure there new staff complete the academy. It was revamped last September to make sure that it’s taking all of our new products into account. We also show agents how to identify a Silversea client within their database and that’s a really useful tool.

Can you explain the new commission structure and what that means for your agents?
We were finding that there was a lot of moving around of business which was taking place a while after the original booking. This was happening from one agent to another for the sake of a couple of hundred quid. It was causing us a lot of admin and a lot of the agents weren’t happy. We were watching what other lines were doing and decided we didn’t want to go down the commission cutting route, we installed a rebating policy. So from now if a booking transfers after 30 days the new agent won’t get the commission, it will go to the original agent; however if a booking is made within 30 days the new agent gets the commission. Prior to that the original agent wasn’t getting anything. We’re also not to be sold or advertised at a lower price than we sell our product. There is also a second change we’re making to our pricing structure where we’re putting in a simpler package – there is now just a cruise price plus an air fare add-on.

How has the first part been received? 
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. There were some agents that had a problem with it but we discussed it with them and explained where we’re coming from.