Cruise Planners Adds New Role, Welcoming Stacy Lowman as Director of Training and Development
Coral Springs, Fla. (PRWEB) January 16, 2017 -- Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative, the nation’s leading home-based travel agency network is committed to the best training and support for its growing travel agent network. This month, Stacy Lowman joined the team in a new role created to heighten the focus on travel agent and internal training and development. Lowman is a veteran in training and employee development who comes to Cruise Planners with extensive prior travel industry and human resources experience.
“Cruise Planners continues to add strategic new roles at the Home Office Team and this new role enhances the professional development opportunities available exclusively to Cruise Planners agents,” said Michelle Fee, CEO and co-founder of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative. “Our dedicated training team will flourish under Stacy’s leadership as they have already been working diligently to set the groundwork for him to hit the ground running and positively impact Cruise Planners agents.”
In his new role, Lowman will lead a seasoned training team charged with redesigning the training platform, Cruise Planners University (CPU), to continue the focus of consistently delivering customized and dynamic content for Cruise Planners travel advisors. He naturally has a passion to help travel agents grow their businesses and wants to help people succeed through mentorship and interactive training, which will merge the latest technology, incentives and content to create an engaging training experience.
Throughout 2017, Cruise Planners has already organized a variety of in-person regional trainings and boot camps under the leadership of Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Agent Engagement, Cathy Kusuma. These two roles will work hand-in-hand to deliver great training programs – both in person and virtually – to provide the Cruise Planners network with the best in the industry.
Lowman will combine his experience from various roles to enhance the current training programs at Cruise Planners. He most recently served as VP of Human Resources, World Travel Holdings, with oversight of corporate communications and talent development and supported their home-based divisions. During his tenure, he helped the company earn a Gold Magellan Award for the new agent training program, an honor that Cruise Planners has also consistently earned. Lowman has a continuous improvement mindset and strives to stay ahead of the curve with new learning methodology, which will be important to the role.
“As a company, we believe that if we entertain while we educate, it helps people to absorb the information, and Stacy gets that too – he already has CruisitudeTM and is a great fit to our team,” Fee said. “Cruise Planners will continue to be a powerhouse in the travel industry with the best marketing, technology and travel agent training. Our recent investment in our improved learning platform and hiring experienced industry talent will help us continue to be the industry leader.”
About Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative
Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative, is the nation’s largest home-based travel agent franchise network in the travel industry. Cruise Planners operates a network of more than 1,800 franchise owners who independently book amazing vacation and travel experiences for their clients. The Florida-based Home Office Team positions a nation-wide network of franchise owners for success by providing innovative marketing, booking and technology tools, as well as professional development and hands-on training with the industry’s top executives. The company continues to be lauded and has been named the No.1 travel franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 14 consecutive years. Cruise Planners was recently featured in Entrepreneur as one of the top 30 franchise innovators in technology, has been consistently named as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by the South Florida Business Journal, is on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, has been ranked as the #1 travel franchise by Franchise Business Review for 6 years in a row, and was recognized as one of the Top Workplaces by the Sun Sentinel since it started ranking companies.
Headquartered in Coral Springs, Fla. with more than 22 years of experience, Cruise Planners has achieved top producer status with every major cruise line. Accolades include numerous Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly, American Express Travel Representative Excellence Award for 13 consecutive years (2004-2016), American Express Agency of the Year (2010), Royal Caribbean International Chairman’s Award (2015), Royal Caribbean International President’s Award for Overall Achievement (2012 and 2014), Royal Caribbean International Home-Based Partner of the Year (2007-2013), Norwegian Cruise Line Elite Agency of the Year (2016), Norwegian Cruise Line Franchise Agency of the Year (2011-2015), Celebrity Cruises Home-Based Partner of the Year (2016), Celebrity Cruises Field Sales Account of the Year (2015), Celebrity Cruises Home-Based Account of the Year (2013-2014) and Celebrity Cruises Southeast Region Travel Agent Partner of the Year (2010), Travel Impressions Best of the Best Globe Award (2008-2016), Sandals Top Host – Worldwide, Globus Family of Brands Premier Agency Partner (2009-2016), Platinum Circle Member with Viking River Cruises (2009-2015), Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection Top Producer (2008-2014) and Regent Seven Seas Cruises Top Producer. Cruise Planners is one of the Top 50 franchises for Veterans according to GI magazine, the Top Franchise Brand for Veterans according to Franchise Business Review, has been named one of the Top 25 franchises for African-Americans by Black Enterprise magazine and is a member of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association. For more information, visit http://www.cruiseplanners.com.
Stay in Touch: Media can stay up-to-date with Cruise Planners by visiting our media room, following us on Twitter @Cruisitude or on Facebook. For additional information or to make reservations, vacationers should locate a travel advisor near them. For those interested in becoming a franchise owner, please visit the Cruise Planners franchise website.
Caitlin Murphy Gardner, Cruise Planners, http://www.cruiseplanners.com, +1 (954) 344-8060 Ext: 117, [email protected]
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