Charter Index
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Posts by Charter Index
Licences and Legalities
Sep 1st
Should charter brokers need to be licensed? A formal license might ease the minds of clients booking a vacation, but the nitty-gritty of creating a license raises as many questions as it might answer. Charter Index Editor Kim Kavin looks at the possibilities, and challenges, that come with the question of broker licensing.
In the state of Florida, if you want to sell real estate, then you must meet a list of criteria determined by the Department of Business Regulation. You must be at least 18 years old and hold a high-school diploma. You must provide a valid Social Security number and agree to have your fingerprints recorded electronically, so the state can track your whereabouts. If you’re a new broker or even an experienced broker who is new to the state, you must take a 72-hour pre-licensing course. No matter who you are, you also need to prove that you’ve been working as a real-estate associate (in training) for at least two years. Only then are you entitled to take the 100-question exam to actually become a Realtor-and if you are among the lucky 50 percent of applicants who typically pass, your license will be good for only two years. More >
Magazine Exclusives
Sep 1st
Are you better off making a deal for a timely cover feature with a leading magazine? Can you get more mileage out of a publicity plan that includes multiple magazines over time? Charter Index Editor Kim Kavin gets the inside scoop from the marketers and journalists who make magazine articles a reality.
Each time a new yacht launches, the owner believes it is the finest boat the charter market has ever known. He has visions of his pride and joy appearing simultaneously on the covers of Showboats, Yachts International, Boat International, The Yacht Report, Yachting, and more, with each magazine providing extensive coverage along the lines of, say, an eight-page feature. He tells his management company to line up the requisite exposure, envisioning central agents and marketing directors on the telephone with editors and writers around the world.
And then, the reality of the publishing business sets in. The exclusive, as it’s known in the marine magazine world, is a concept that drives coverage more than any other. Every magazine editor wants to splash the screaming words “World Exclusive!” across the cover, telling readers that they should buy that particular magazine because it offers a first look at a new yacht that More >
Website traffic – nothing more than a number?
Sep 1st
All too often, website traffic is considered to be nothing more than a number. A site that generates 10,000 unique viewers a day must be healthier than a site with only 1,000, right? The logic goes that if you’re not generating massive traffic, then you must be doing something wrong. Charter professionals who invest heavily in website design, only to see traffic climbing at a snail’s pace, often wonder whether they’ve wasted their money entirely.
In reality, there is a smarter way to gauge website traffic. Yes, you need healthy traffic in order to have a successful website—but “healthy traffic” means far more than just the number of unique visitors. It means the most possible people who are seriously interested in yacht charter, finding your website through multiple sources.
It’s not enough to ask, “How much traffic do I have today?” The smarter question is, “How are valuable, potential clients finding me online?”
The best answer is through multiple traffic sources. The healthiest websites regularly get serious readers from all kinds of places. Some of the key traffic sources for any healthy website are described below, along with tips for making the most of each avenue.
Search engines. Typically, search engines such as Google More >
Should Travel Agents be Encouraged to Sell Yacht Charters?
Sep 1st
Retail Broker: Suzette McLaughlin,
Camper & Nicholsons International
Those of us who work in and sell the yachting lifestyle are specialists of this venue. At a recent luxury marketing forum, one of the highlights focused on being a specialist in your field and standing out from those who are not! I would have to say I would not encourage anyone to sell a product they are unfamiliar with. Many details come into play during the charter process that need to be pointed out to clients and explained. Someone from outside the industry would not understand this process. Some examples to note are contracts, cruising areas, distances, yachts, and crew. The concept of planning a yachting holiday is very specific. Having a full understanding of the “how’s and why’s” matters tremendously. By adding a third person into the charter process, information can easily be diluted. The trend of our industry for years has certainly been repeat and referral business. Clients who spend the amount of money they do want to know they are dealing with knowledgeable individuals—specialists in the field. Similar to anyone purchasing any expensive item, clients prefer to go to the source that knows the item intimately.
Central Agent: Shawn Laird, More >
The Five Biggest Mistakes You Can Make.
Jun 1st
Captains, retail brokers, and central agents must work together to create a successful charter experience. When things go wrong,the finger-pointing begins, and the same old gripes are heard behind the scenes. Charter Index editor Kim Kavin brings the most common complaints out of the shadows.
Nobody wants to be quoted for this article. It’s kind of amazing, really, given how freely charter yacht captains, retail brokers, and central agents typically discuss one another’s flaws. I’d wager that one in every three of the boat show luncheons I attend includes an animated discussion about charters gone wrong—and, more interesting, who is to blame. When it comes to fam trips, the odds of such a discussion emerging (dare I say erupting?) are a solid 100 percent. After more than a decade of hearing these rants, I can almost sing them like a song.
Unfortunately, the conversations typically take place among like-minded retail brokers, or among like-minded captains, or among like-minded central agents. It’s rare for a retail broker to say her piece while sitting next to a central agent who controls access to yachts, or for a captain to cut loose within earshot of a retail broker who has paying clients at the ready, More >
Are Printed Brochures Obsolete?
Jun 1st
Some charter companies continue to produce thick, expensive, printed catalogs while others have moved primarily to digital marketing models. Some yachts, too, have abandoned glossy brochures in favor of websites, Twitterfeeds, and downloadable PDFs. Charter Index Editor Kim Kavin examines the changing demand for printed and digital marketing materials.
It was not so long ago—say, in 2006 or 2007—that retail brokers were still lugging extra suitcases to Genoa, Italy, each May. Not to pack with aged balsamic vinegar or bottlesof Barolo (well, not entirely, anyway), but instead to jam full of printed charter yacht brochures. The brochures had taken on the characteristics of an actual commodity, becoming ever thicker, ever glossier, and ever more valuable. When airlines began instituting extra fees for heavy luggage, many brokers turned to DHL rather than leave their carefully gathered stacks of printed brochures behind. They quite simply could not book most charters without them.Today, the combination of shrinking marketing budgets and expanding electronic options is making printed brochures obsolete at boat shows. Some central agents still pass out flers, and the occasional glossy brochure is available aftera tour, but more oftenthan not, brokers are handed a memory stick or are asked to visit a website More >
How PageRank Affects Your Google Position
Jun 1st
Everyone wants their website to be listed firstin Google search results. A key factor that influenes the order of those results is called PageRank, and it’s an important concept for anyone with a website to understand.
PageRank is named for Larry Page, one of Google’s co-founders. It is a complex algorithm that incorporates multiple layers of variable elements to help Google de-termine which web pages are bette, or more relevant to a search, than others. The web pages that earn the best PageRank end up at the top of Google search re-sults. Thus, you want your PageRank to be as high as possible for every page on your website. Google’s preferred variables are an industry secret, but they are widely believed to include a number of things that you can control. Experts in search engine optimization spend countless hours trying to discern the PageRank variables—which are always chang-ing—and generally recommend the following steps for anyone who wants to improve their website’s Page-Rank.
Build inbound links. Google itself acknowledges inbound links as a PageRank variable. Every web page that links to your web page is essentially casting a vote for your web page. If a web page that already has a high PageRank More >
Are fam trips worth the effort and expense?
Jun 1st
Retail Broker: Jan Henry,
Fraser Yachts Worldwide
As a charter broker in this industry for many years, I can attestto the fact that fam trips are definitelyworth it. That’s true whether the owner pays all of the broker’s expenses or the charter broker pays for some of the ex-penses.
You have the opportunity to experience what only paying guests get to experience—the quality of the yacht, the service of the crew, and the cuisine provided by the chef. Doing regular inspections of yachts, which is standard procedure, educates the charter broker on the surface details and perhaps gives some insight into the captain and his crew, but not to the depth that a fam trip affords.
I have had fam trips that have given me the knowl-edge I needed to book clients onto the yachts. It’s not only because of the up close and personal experience of being pampered in the manner of a paying guest, but also sometimes because I got to experience a cruising area that I had yet to visit.
In some cases, an owner might host a fam trip but say that the charter broker has to pay her own airfare to and from the yacht. If the broker then More >
Frustration At Any Rate
Mar 1st
the mid-2000s, Samuel Le Gall helped to get the fledgling Azimut Charter Club of the ground. The charter agency was a partner to industry powerhouse Fraser Yachts Worldwide, with the new group focusing on Azimut-built yachts in the 60- to 100-foot range. Le Gall and his colleagues created easy-to-sell, prepackaged experiences – the spa charter, the golf charter, that sort of thing – and calculated the engine hours needed to complete each itinerary. They then came up with all-inclusive pricing that would appeal to clients most likely to charter yachts in the Azimut size and price range, meaning primarily first-timers who were completely new to the yachting industry.
“We thought it would get a new market segment: travel agencies,” Le Gall recalls. “They may have qualifiedclients, but they don’t know how to sell yachts. To sell yachts side-by-side with cruise ships, when the agent presents the pricing, the yacht sounds like a scandal.”
The Azimut Charter Club did not survive, but the con-cept did. It’s now being tested in the form of Neo Yachting, a year-old company based in Nice, France, where Le Gall is a key player along with former Azimut Charter Club executive Nicolas Valin. Many of the yachts advertised More >
Chef’s Competitions: Are There Politics behind the Plating
Mar 1st
Who the judges are, and who the winners are, continues to foment behind-the-scenes gossip year afteryear. Charter Index Editor Kim Kavin talks with first-time entrants, past winners, and one leading organizer about how chefs’ contests are organized and judged.
When a longtime charter fleetmanager talks about a particular chefs’ competition from the mid-2000s, he describes it with the clarity of a person remembering where he was the day two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. ”
I was standing there at the awards ceremony, listening to the winners’ names being announced,” says the manager, who asked to remain anonymous. “Of course, I’m rooting for our chef, but then I watched the announcer open the envelope, and I felt that something very wrong had happened. As the announcer looked at the results, she smiled and said, ‘Ah, the winner is so-and-so, and I’d just like to personally thank the captain for the wonderful dinner and wine that I enjoyed onboard last night.’ She didn’t even take a breath in between. It appeared so obvious that the two things were connected.”
The manager’s attitude toward chefs’ contests is not exclusive to him alone. Countless captains, chefs, and charter yacht managers have complained in years More >
Henry Stainton > Yacht Marketing: Great article, Search engine optimisation can often be extremely difficult for independent yacht...
Nigel James: That sounds like shooting yourself in the foot with a gun firing blanks - lots of noise & smoke...
Charter Specialists: While I agree printed brochures are becoming obsolete for the most part, there is something to be...
Digital or Printed Brochures: [...] Are printed brochures obsolete? [...]
