Date: 3/20/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – The Cruise Store was recently awarded a platinum status by Apple Vacations. At least 50 travel agencies in the country also received the recognition.
Donald Anderson, owner of the Cruise Store located at 55 Maple St., told Reminder Publications two or fewer travel agencies per state received the accommodation.
“The area of growth that we’re seeing, and it might surprise people, is people under 35 coming in to book travel, who have never used a travel agency in their life,” he added.
Anderson described his business as a “vacation concierge,” but without any additional costs associated with that service.
“We don’t charge a fee,” he added. “We’re free ... People go online, they check seven sites or whatever and then they come in to see us and say, ‘Here’s what we found. What can you do?’”
Anderson said the Cruise Store makes money from the commission costs of vacation packages clients’ purchase.
“The model of the typical travel agency is bottom charge service fees,” he added. “You buy your [airline] tickets, there’s a service fee. There’s a fee for this and that. We don’t charge it. We get paid within the price and we just sell lots and lots of travel. Our customers come from all around the world.”
Anderson, who is also an attorney, said he began his business in 1991 “as a one-room office” because he “fell in love with cruising” in 1989 after his first cruise.
“I said, ‘This is amazing. I’m going to set up a sister business for that,’” he explained. “And when I formed the community, the primary focus was to see if we could compete, not only on a local level, but on a national level.”
Anderson said he met his wife Maureen during a Caribbean trip in October 2000. She later also became his business partner. The two were both from East Longmeadow and had never met before that time.
“We got married in 2003 [and] Maureen’s been running the travel agency side for the last eight years ... I couldn’t hire a better headhunter to hire her. She was vice president of $60 million, multi-office travel agency called Carroll Travel, [which is now no longer in business].”
While Maureen works with the travel agency side of the business, Donald handles the contracts, business, and commercial elements of the Cruise Store.
The business has also utilized social media to advertise its services, Anderson said.
“We have [5,886] followers on Facebook,” he added. “We just got another 900 or so on Twitter.”
For more information about the Cruise Store visit www.cruisestore.com/cs. or www.facebook.com/cruisestore.
