Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is hoping for a full force rebound in bookings from travel agents, but is also prepared to take more direct bookings if necessary, according to CEO Frank Del Rio, speaking on the company’s third quarter earnings call. 

“We’re hoping that the travel agent community comes back in full force,” said Del Rio.

“They’ve also been out of work, and unlike the big public cruise companies that can go to Wall Street and raise billions of dollars, these are mostly smaller businesses and can’t.

“And so I’m praying and hoping that they do come back in full force. But at the end of the day, we have to fill our vessels in any way we can, and we do offer consumers multiple choices of how to engage with us. We prefer the travel agency channel. It is our biggest channel. It is coming back. We’ve seen improvements sequentially quarter-by-quarter in terms of the percentage of our business that is being booked by travel agents. And I do believe that once our fleet is back in operation, along with that of our peers, that they will come back. But if not, we have adapted, we are prepared, we have the technology, we have the wherewithal to take the bookings.”