Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises have launched a new Internet tool that provides online booking capabilities to customers who visit travel-agency websites. The booking tool also allows travel agents to earn full commissions on all sailed bookings made through their website.

The new tool, Partner Booking Link, is designed to assist customers who visit a travel agent's website. Partner Booking Link allows customers to quickly and simply connect to the Royal Caribbean International or Celebrity Cruises websites where they can book cruises, as well as view entertaining multi-media presentations. Partner Booking Link then directs booked cruises to the travel agency used as the online gateway.

"This is a wonderful new way to assist both our customers and travel agents," said Jack Williams, president of Royal Caribbean International. "As our customers visit the websites of their favorite travel agents, they can immediately link to one of our websites to research or book a cruise."

Customers who use Partner Booking Link connect to the Royal Caribbean or Celebrity website, which will include the travel agency's pricing and contact information. When a cruise is booked, Royal Caribbean or Celebrity sends an e-mail confirmation to both the customer and the travel agency. The confirmation includes guest and travel-agency contact information and booking numbers. The travel agency is responsible for supporting the booking by making changes the customer requests, processing cancellations, collecting final payments and delivering travel documents.

Unlike similar online booking tools, which merely take customers to a cruise line's home page, Partner Booking Link can link customers directly to information on specific ships and destinations, available on the Royal Caribbean or Celebrity websites.

Customers have the option of submitting a credit-card deposit online via Royal Caribbean's or Celebrity's secure websites, or place their cruise "on hold." Customers who place a cruise "on hold" are then contacted by the travel agency to obtain payment information.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company that operates Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Celebrity Tours. Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises have a combined total of 21 ships in servic eand 8 under construction or on firm order. Royal Celebrity Tours operates cruise-tour vacations in Alaska.