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Why Franchise?

There are about 760,000 franchise businesses generating more than $1.5 trillion in sales, according to the International Franchise Association. What makes buying a franchise better than starting your own business from scratch? With a franchise, you're buying a support system and the rights to operate a business that has been developed by the Franchisor, who has an expertise in the business and, in most cases, tackled and solved the problems that people generally encounter in the industry you are thinking of entering. You're buying the security of a brand and a model with established operating, reporting and management systems in place. With a franchise, you're purchasing a head start in the industry which is far greater than setting the exact business up from scratch. Franchising is growing at nearly 6% per year, accounting for approximately one-third of all U.S. retail sales. IFA statistics show that 80% of franchise owners succeed in their businesses. So even though it doesn't guarantee success, statistics reveal that fewer than 20% of new franchise businesses fail. Compare that to the 60%-80% failure rate of new businesses overall each year in the U.S.

The biggest advantages to franchising are:

• Owning a franchise allows you to go into business for yourself, but not BY yourself.
• Franchises provide owners a certain level of independence to operate their business.
• Franchises offer support, training, advertising and marketing, operational assistance, mentoring, increased buying and spending power,
access to bulk purchasing, etc.
• Brand recognition, in most cases, offers the benefit of customer awareness, which takes years to establish on your own.

Now, the toughest decision you have to make is choosing the right industry and franchise model that fits your needs and desires. At CruiseOne, we have been helping our potential owners decide by providing all the tools necessary to make confident decisions when agreeing to purchase with us. That is why we provide the following reference tool for you...Please download "An Introduction to Franchising" a periodical from the IFA to assist you in your search. This booklet coupled with the Cruise Industry information below, will guide you through this process.

- Statistical data and information from the International Franchise Association (IFA)

Cruise Industry Overview

The cruise industry is the most exciting and profitable vacation category in the United States and Canada. Its average rate of growth has been far greater than any other segment in the travel industry.

For an understanding of the actual size of the market, according to CLIA (Cruise Line International Association), a Cruise Industry Study indicates that 97% of the cruise market meets the following criteria, which were used to screen respondents for the current study:

• 25 years or older

• Live in households with earnings of $40,000 or more per year

Population and study results indicate the following:

• The segment represents 44% of the total US population (289,092,000 in 2006), yielding 127,200,000 prime cruise candidates

Of the target population, 49,608,000 (39% of 127,200,000) have taken a cruise, and more than half of those (55% - 25,840,000) have done so in the past three years.
In fact, the cruise lines themselves see the potential growth in the industry. Collectively, there are plans to add 34 new ships through 2011, representing 82,729 lower berths combined.

Travel Agents play a major role in filling these vessels to capacity. A CLIA study shows that Cruisers are more frequently influenced by travel agents (12% vs. 5%) than any other travel segment. Three out four (75%) actually book their cruises through a Travel Agent; which stresses that cruisers and potential cruisers alike need education and guidance to learn the subtle differences between the lines themselves, vessels, and destinations visited. A well educated, service-minded Travel Agent can see up to a 60% repeat and referral rate, based on their skills.

In comparison to other types of vacations, cruising holds the highest percentage of participants who express extreme satisfaction (45%). All-inclusive resorts have the second highest satisfaction levels (42%), followed by visiting friends/relatives (40%). This is higher than the rate of extreme satisfaction of land-based packages (29%). Some cruise lines themselves experience far greater than the (45%) and strive for a near 100%. This means that you can sell cruises with greater confidence knowing that your customers will have a greater chance of being satisfied than any other vacation.

Sources used for this industry overview include CLIA and Business Research & Economic Advisors.

The Complete studies can be downloaded from the links on our "Industry" page