If you’re a cruise specialist, you could be missing the boat if you’re not actively marketing shipboard and destination weddings. Yes, it’s a major market segment and one that is growing rapidly in the cruise industry.

“It’s definitely an emerging market and a great area for agents to specialize in, because it’s unique,” says Vicky Garcia, COO of Cruise Planners-American Express. “We’ve done a lot to focus and train our agents on it. We have a whole romance channel at our online university with five webinars and course work just on romance travel.”

Cruise Planners has also partnered with a third-party company to coordinate destination weddings. The commissionable program includes wedding packages in more than 20 ports.

Janet DeVito, a CruiseOne franchise owner from Freehold, N.J., says that roughly half of her business is wedding/honeymoon and romance travel, a segment that developed naturally. “When my five kids were younger, I was mostly doing family travel, but as everyone got older, I started doing more weddings.”

GRASS-ROOTS METHOD

Garcia suggests building a destination wedding business using grass-roots methods — perhaps partnering with a bridal shop, seeking referrals from wedding photographers or bakeries, or sending information to couples who place an engagement notice in the local newspaper.

DeVito finds business develops from the wedding groups. Her son got married during a cruise on the Celebrity Reflection. The actual ceremony took place at the Ritz-Carlton on St. Thomas and was followed by a luncheon at the resort and then a reception back on the ship for the 58 wedding guests. “It was wonderful,” DeVito says. “It was nice to be able to spend time with my daughter-in-law and my son’s friends. The families really got to know each other. Instead of just having stressful meetings, they got to spend a whole week with each other in a fun, tropical setting. Some people told my son, ‘We should’ve done it your way. I don’t even remember my wedding because everything was so rushed.’ ”

And that’s how the business grows. Wedding guests go home — DeVito says her wedding groups generally include about 60 people — and tell their friends and family how fun and stress-free the wedding was, with a built-in honeymoon. The positive word-of-mouth brings in new customers.

BUILT-IN MARKETING

In fact, the marketing starts before the wedding, when the invitations recommend calling the travel agent who is booking the group. “The bride and groom send out the invitation with the travel agent’s name and phone number listed. It says, ‘To reserve a room, please contact Janet DeVito.’ All the guests

really do need to book through a single travel agent to make sure everything goes smoothly. The guest list might be 200 people and you might only book 60, but your name is on the invitation as a travel agent who does destination weddings.”

DeVito isn’t interested in the nitty-gritty details of planning the actual ceremony. She lets the wedding planners at the resort or cruise lines handle that. In fact, most cruise lines have wedding packages in which a third-party company organizes the ceremony and also handles the legalities of marriage licenses and such (see related story on page 28). “It’s not a very difficult thing to do if you use the resources the ship and hotel has,” DeVito says. “They know what they’re doing, and they know what strings they can pull. As a travel agent, I’m there to take care of people, get them there, make sure they’re happy there and get them home.”

But planning a wedding in a port of call during a cruise could be risky if the itinerary changes due to weather or other unexpected situations. Although it’s rare, it does happen. DeVito says she shies away from planning weddings for Grand Cayman, since cruise ships must tender there and might cancel if seas are too rough. She likes St. Thomas, which has docks and also is a U.S. territory.

But DeVito says things can happen when a wedding is planned at home as well — blizzards can hit, power can go out. If the wedding is at a resort, let them know the wedding party is arriving by cruise ship and the planners can prepare contingencies.

“Our partner can do weddings in over 200 ports, although we focus on 20,” Garcia says. “So they have connections in the next port of call and can actually redo the weddings in another port.”

SAME-SEX CEREMONIES

Cruise Planners is also actively promoting weddings and commitment ceremonies to same-sex couples. “We’ve been offering same-sex commitment ceremony and wedding packages since the launch of our weddings program,” Cruise Planners CEO and Co-Founder Michelle Fee said in a press release. “This is a very progressive time, and it’s a turning point in history. As a result, we have seen an impressive increase in demand from same-sex couples looking to declare their love for each other.”

That spurred Cruise Planners to organize the “Sea of Love Cruise,” a seven-night Eastern Caribbean voyage on Norwegian Getaway that will include a same-sex group commitment ceremony on a beach on St. Thomas. The Sept. 27 cruise also will visit St. Maarten and Nassau, and the commitment ceremony will take place on Oct. 1. After the ceremony, couples and their guests will celebrate with a reception that includes a buffet, open bar, party costumes, a champagne toast, steel pan band and a photographer. Rates start at $2,599 per couple and include cruise fare round-trip from Miami, the beachfront ceremony and celebration, and special onboard activities for the couples and their guests.

Once you start booking weddings, you can look forward to booking anniversary trips, renewal-of-vows cruises and more. “So many people hit milestones of 10 or 20 years and want to renew their vows and have their children with them,” DeVito says. “It’s kind of a nice trip and might be a dozen people.”

Garcia agrees. “The repeat business offers a great opportunity,” she says. “You know they got married on Dec. 16, 2013, during this cruise, so next year when it gets close, send them an anniversary card and suggest surprising your spouse with an anniversary trip. And five years down the road with a babymoon.”