RCCL Restructures 2009 Commission Tiers for Some Consortia

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has restructured the 2009 commission thresholds for some consortia, following its announcement in May that it was raising thresholds for the first time since 1999.

RCCL earlier this year toughened up commission tiers for 2009 for its Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Cruises brands, requiring in a few cases that agents nearly double their combined sales in order to maintain their 2008 commission levels. National accounts and consortia, which up until 2008 were given lower commission targets to achieve than smaller and unaffiliated agents, were hit the hardest.

Royal Caribbean International’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, Vicki Freed, said that although the thresholds were changed, retailers always had the opportunity to negotiate.

To reach RCCL’s top commission threshold of 16 percent in 2009, agents were told in May that they would need to sell at least $1.5 million in combined sales of RCCL’s three North American brands –an increase of 36 percent for non-consortia agents and 76 percent for consortia members.

Now, for some consortia agencies, the revised commission tables will mean having to sell $1.1 million to earn 16 percent commission, a 29 percent year-over-year increase. At the low end of the commission structure, agencies in the regular tiers will need to sell $50,000 to advance from 10 percent base pay to 11 percent; for some consortia agencies, that threshold will be $35,000.