Although many consider cruising a luxurious activity, they can only experience it later in life. Approximately 26 million individuals from various backgrounds and circumstances choose to embark and disembark from cruise ships each year.
This might be because a cruise is one of the safest holidays you can enjoy.
This is why people are happy to pay up to $3,650 per person for a 10-day cruise. And the above points explain why the cruise industry is valued at around $125 billion per year.
That’s also why we’ve compiled a list of hand-picked cruise affiliate programs for you to promote.
Let’s look at how you can make a bank from the cruise industry.
Cruise Affiliate Programs
- Royal Caribbean Cruises Affiliate Program
- Polynesian Cultural Centre Affiliate Program
- Orbitz Cruise Affiliate Program
- ROAM Luggage Affiliate Program
- Virgin Holidays Cruise Affiliate Program
- Fugu Luggage Affiliate Program
- Dock & Bay Affiliate Program
- Allianz Worldwide Affiliate Program
- Way.com Affiliate Program
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1 Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean has been “… taking the extraordinary and making it ordinary” for millions of cruise passengers worldwide for several decades.
The company operates 25 ships that travel to over 250 exotic and unique destinations.
Royal Caribbean is synonymous with luxury cruises, and recent innovations like robotic bartenders bolster that image. So you won’t have to invest much time explaining who Royal Caribbean is to your audience.
Cruises obviously cost a lot, so how much money can affiliates make here?
You’ll probably notice that the commission rates are in British pounds, but don’t worry — Royal Caribbean is an international program.
Customers spend an average of £1,254 for a basic cruise, and with a 4% payout, affiliates stand to make £50.16 per sale. But many cruises cost far, far more than the above amount.
- URL: Royal Caribbean International affiliate program
- Commission rate: 4% per sale
- EPC: £95.67
- Cookie duration: 45 days
2 Polynesian Cultural Centre
The Polynesian Cultural Centre, founded in 1865, is situated in Laie. Its goal is to provide a way of celebrating and protecting Polynesian culture, including its arts and crafts.
Students from local colleges began working here in 1963 to earn money for their education and immerse themselves in their native culture.
Since then, the Polynesian Cultural Center has become Oahu’s most popular paid tourist attraction, with 1 million visitors annually. So, anyone on a Pacific or Hawaiian cruise would most likely want to check it out here. All you need to do is make your audience aware of it.
Affiliates get paid 5% for sales on Polynesia.com and 7% for any sales made on shop.polynesia.com
What’s also interesting about their affiliate program is that the average order size is $385, which means commissions are between $20 and $27 per sale.
If nothing else, this program would make an interesting add-on for any site with a travel, retirement, or vacation audience.
- URL: Polynesian Cultural Center affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5% – 7% per sale
- EPC: $184.69
- Cookie duration: 60 days
3 Orbitz
Orbitz, the popular price comparison aggregator, allowed visitors to find bargain-priced hotels and flights when booking online over the last 15 years.
Orbitz helps you find great deals on cruises for all the popular destinations and routes, including world cruises. Whether you need to book flights, hotels, cars, or anything else for your holiday, you can do it all through Orbitz.
If you’re familiar with Commission Junction, you’ll notice that Orbitz has a 5/5 ‘Network Earnings’ score and an EPC over $100, meaning many affiliate transactions are taking place.
Our affiliate marketing statistics show CJ is also the fourth-most popular affiliate network.
The downsides of this affiliate program are the short cookie duration and the fact that you earn varying amounts depending on what your visitors buy. However, regarding cruise affiliate programs, Orbitz pays $40 for every referred sale, which isn’t too shabby.
Note: Orbitz and Expedia are now basically the same company, just in case you were wondering why we didn’t feature Expedia separately.
- URL: Orbitz affiliate program
- Commission rate: 2% – 7%, $3 – $40
- EPC: $106.17
- Cookie duration: 7 days
4 ROAM Luggage
ROAM Luggage offers travel luggage with a twist – you can design your own. We wanted to feature an affiliate program for those massive Victorian-era travel chests.
But ROAM Luggage is actually better because you can design the luggage you want for your cruise, even down to a personalized monogram. So not only will you look good, but you’ll never again have to wade through an endless ocean of identical black luggage looking for your bags.
You’ll be able to pick your luggage out on any baggage carousel with ease.
Bespoke luggage is obviously more expensive, which is why ROAM customers spend an average of $414, which means a $33 commission for you.
That’s for an average sale and doesn’t consider the luggage shoppers who can and will spend thousands in a single transaction. Plus, if they can afford a luxury cruise, it should be easy enough to “encourage” them to invest in some new luggage.
- URL: ROAM Luggage affiliate program
- Commission rate: 8% per sale
- EPC: $22
- Cookie duration: 30 days
5 Virgin Holidays
Virgin Holidays is one of the many businesses run by philanthropist and billionaire Richard Branson.
All of his business success had the most humble beginnings – selling second-hand records after he dropped out of school.
Virgin has a reputation for treating its customers particularly well, so we wanted to include this program. It’s all too easy sometimes to forget that your visitors are real people, so you obviously want them to enjoy their holiday.
The 1% commission rate made us pause for a moment – can affiliates make money promoting their offers?
However, two factors must be taken into account. The first is that the average cost of a Virgin cruise is about £2,500, but people pay up to £45,000 for a world cruise package.
The second factor is Virgin Holidays pays up to 2%, so 1% isn’t your maximum rate. So, your commission for referring customers to Virgin Cruises can be as little as £25 or as much as £225 per sale.
- URL: Virgin Cruises affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 2%
- EPC: £79.16
- Cookie duration: 30 days
6 Fugu Luggage
Rollux Travel tackles one of those age-old problems every tourist has experienced at least once: how much luggage to bring on vacation.
You know exactly how much space you need for your own clothes and other personal items. But how can you judge how much space you’ll need for all those amazing gifts you find in different ports around the world?
You can’t.
That’s why Isaac Atlas (a perfect name for this niche) and David Lifshitz teamed up to create expandable luggage, and the Fugu brand was born.
Selling Rollux luggage to your audience should be pretty easy. They buy a carry-on case that can expand to hold everything else they buy while abroad.
With an average order size of $444 and a 10% commission rate, this program is worth adding to your site’s portfolio.
- URL: Rollux Travel affiliate program
- Commission rate: 10% per sale
- EPC: $45.31
- Cookie duration: 90 days
7 Dock & Bay
Dock & Bay is the first affiliate program we’ve promoted that made a successful appearance on Dragon’s Den (the UK version of Shark Tank), i.e., they got the cash.
More specifically, the founders, Andy and Ben, decided to reinvent the towel. That’s how their quick-drying beach towel came to be, but they also manufacture hair wraps, swim shorts, and ponchos.
These are ideal for cruise ships because they’re extremely compact and dry in almost no time. Plus, the person using a Dock & Bay product has the added hint of prestige of being an early adopter of the brand.
This might be caused by Dock & Bay’s relatively new brand, but that’s another reason to capitalize on this opportunity right now.
They offer a 30-day cookie.
- URL: Dock & Bay affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
8 Allianz Worldwide Care
Allianz Insurance opened its first office in 1890. Modern tourism, as we know it, really only started in the 1950s and has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the decades since.
Allianz acquired Elvia Travel Insurance in 2000, making it the world’s leading supplier of assistance insurance (health, travel, breakdown, etc.).
Their international health insurance coverage is aimed at people who might be spending several months overseas, on a cruise, for example. Basically, it ensures that you’ll receive the best medical care possible if you need it, regardless of where you are in the world.
Their EPC of €370 is no surprise because most financial, banking, or insurance affiliate programs will typically have higher-than-average EPCs. If you have the right audience, you can make €10 – €50 per sale or a flat €10 per lead generated.
This is a pretty niche program best suited to people going on world cruises, but tens of thousands of new vacationers enter that market every year.
- URL: Allianz affiliate program
- Commission rate: €10 – €50 per sale, or €10 per lead
- EPC: €370.86
- Cookie duration: 15 days
9 Way.Com
Way.com is an interesting idea in that its search engine helps users find the best deals on movie tickets, restaurants, city parking, and airport parking. The last thing you want to have happen is not to be able to find airport parking before you jet out to start your cruise.
Using Way.com, you can enter your departure airport to see available parking options and daily costs. This isn’t exactly revolutionary, but based on their Impact Radius ranking, many people are using this service.
How much will they pay an affiliate to refer a new customer?
The answer to that question is up to 7% of all sales. Yes, that’s a small amount, but remember that Way.com generates a lot of transactions on Impact, so affiliates are definitely making money with them.
Also, this type of affiliate program is about the quantity of traffic and not quality.
- URL: Way.com affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 7% per sale
- Cookie duration: 30 days
Conclusion
So there you have it, our top 9 cruise affiliate programs.
Yup, we did some thinking outside the box here, but we’re never going to “recommend” affiliate programs that promise a lot…but deliver nothing.
After all, you got started in affiliate marketing to make money.
Oh, you’re unsure how to get the ball rolling with this affiliate stuff?
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