Carnival Cruise Lines will modify its U.S. travel agent commission tiers for new bookings made as of January 1, 2013. The modification will not impact business sold during 2012 for 2013 or 2014 sailings. This is the first modification to commission tiers Carnival has made in the past 10 years and the majority of travel agents will not see a change to their current commission level.

With the new modifications in place, travel agent commission tiers will now be more in line with the marketplace, as well as reflect Carnival’s 50 percent capacity growth during the past 10 years. Additionally, in order to simplify the structure, the basis on which commission percentages are determined for each travel agency will be modified. Commission percentages will continue to be based on volume instead of revenue and will be based on net cabin volume in 2013 rather than the current seven-day equivalent volume structure. This change is the result of agency feedback which indicated that the seven-day equivalent structure was cumbersome and confusing.

“We rely on and appreciate the support of travel agents and remain fully committed to helping them grow their businesses,” said Lynn Torrent, executive vice president of sales and guest services for Carnival Cruise Lines. “Most North American cruise brands have decreased capacity in the U.S. as they’ve substantially increased international sourcing and deployment, while Carnival remains focused on the U.S. market. As such, Carnival pays more commission to U.S. travel agents than any other cruise brand and the vast majority of our guests are sourced from the U.S. which continues to create huge earnings opportunities for domestic travel agents.”

Added Torrent, “The Carnival brand has been, and will continue to be all about providing fun and memorable vacations at a great value. We are committed to our brand and product, and to ensuring a healthy and robust distribution system. Carnival continues to focus on helping strengthen the travel agent distribution system by investing millions of dollars in growing the number of new cruisers and investing in tools and training to help travel agents more efficiently and effectively grow their business with us.”