Tag Archives: Celebrity Cruises

Royal Caribbean International appoints new director of sales

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By Hollie-Rae Merrick

Royal Caribbean International appoints new director of salesRoyal Caribbean International has appointed a new director of sales for the UK and Ireland.

Ben Bouldin (pictured, right) will lead an 18-strong dedicated sales team. The addition of the newly-created role and the expanded sales and marketing team follows the announcement that Royal Caribbean and sister brands Azamara Club Cruises and Celebrity Cruises would operate as individual businesses.

Bouldin has 15 years experience in sales having held senior roles at PepsiCo International. He will now work alongside Jo Briody, who has been appointed director of marketing and PR for the brand.

Stuart Leven, managing director for UK and Ireland, said: “With a new brand structure in place and the recent announcements confirming Anthem of the Seas deployment to the UK in 2015, Ben joins the Royal Caribbean business at an exciting time.

“I look forward to working alongside him and am confident that with his exceptional experience working with high profile international brands he’ll be able to build on the team’s industry leading track record within the cruise sector.”

Steiner, Celebrity won’t renew spa contract in 2014

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By Rebecca Tobin

Spa operator Steiner Leisure said this week that its agreement to operate the spas onboard Celebrity Cruises ships would not be renewed.

In a statement, the company said it had been advised by Celebrity that the line would not renew the agreement, which expires Dec. 31.

“The company is negotiating a transition plan as to the turnover of the ships to the new vendor,” Steiner said.

In the statement, Steiner CEO Leonard Fluxman said the company was “disappointed with Celebrity’s decision, particularly in view of our revenues being at historical highs on Celebrity’s ships. We believe that the terms we proposed for renewal contained compelling economics, and it also contained a unique brand at sea. It is our understanding that Celebrity’s decision was made purely from a marketing perspective.”

“Steiner has been an excellent partner over the years,” Celebrity said in an email. “We thank them for helping us deliver high quality spa experiences to our valued guests.”

It said it would make an announcement about its new spa and wellness partner “in the near future.”

Celebrity in recent years has expanded its spa offerings; for example, its AquaClass category, which debuted on the Solstice, enables passengers in AquaClass cabins to enjoy spa- and wellness-related perks and exclusive access to a restaurant featuring “clean cuisine.”

Steiner has long been the largest spa operator at sea. In its statement, the company said its cruise line operations are conducted on spas on 155 ships. It currently services Celebrity sister brands Azamara Club Cruises and Royal Caribbean International. In June it announced a deal with Royal Caribbean to extend its agreement through 2017. Its land-based customers include Hilton, Marriott, St. Regis and W Hotels.

A handful of cruise ships and lines have contracted with other spa operators, such as Canyon Ranch, which operates the spas onboard Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 and the Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises ships.

Royal Caribbean and Iglu top charts in Greenlight cruise search analysis

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By Travolution

By Travolution

Specialist cruise travel agent Iglu.com and operator Royal Caribbean are leading the way in terms of profile on Google according to the latest sector analysis from Greenlight.

The search agency analysed the 2.2 million cruise-related queries on the leading search engine, finding that brand queries were by far the most popular, accounting for 59%.

‘Royal Caribbean’, the world’s second largest operator behind the owner of UK market leader P&O Cruises’ parent Carnival Corporation, accounted for 6% of searches.

The line was also the most visible advertiser for paid search on Google.

Iglu topped the ranking for natural results and also Greenlight’s integrated search league table for natural and paid search combined having gained 67% share of voice in the former.

The 12 month view of search in the cruise showed November dip following a five month period when search volumes remained fairly static at around 2.5 million queries.

A significant spike in March saw the sector leap to 3.3 million from a low of 1.5 million in February following a period of declining volumes.

While brand searches accounted for 59% of the overall total, destination related searches were 12%, generic 14% and cruise ships 15%.

In the natural search table Iglu beat cruise.co.uk and Thomas Cook into second and third place respectively, with Wikipedia and P&O Cruises making up the top 5.

Key word ‘Royal Caribbean’ was queried 135,00 times, 10% of all brand-related queries, and the UK version of review site Cruise Critic claimed 61% share of voice by ranking for 1,469 keywords.

Viva Voyage, Planet Cruise (which was bought by Iglu this year), cruisedeals.co.uk and Iglu made up the top five most visible paid advertisers.

Royal Caribbean ships also fared well in the analysis, Independence of the Seas, which has sailed out of Southampton during the summer for the last six years.

This keyword was queried 18,100 times accounting for 5% of all cruise liner-related searches.

Analysis of destination-related searches found the ‘Caribbean cruises’, the world’s second largest destination for cruise behind Europe, accounted for 9% of searches.

‘Mediterranean cruises’ and ‘cruises from Southampton’ accounted for 5% and 3% of destination-related queries.

Of the 420 generic cruise keywords analysed ‘cruises’ accounted for 19% ‘last minute cruises 6% and ‘river cruises’ 5%.

Greenlight also assesses brand’s profile on social media. For cruise Youtube and Wikipedia claimed to the two top spots with Klout scores of 99 and 97 respectively.

They were followed by Thomas Cook, Thomson, Celebrity Cruises and P&O Cruises.

– See more at: http://www.travolution.com/articles/2013/12/20/7413/royal-caribbean-and-iglu-top-charts-in-greenlight-cruise-search-analysis.html#sthash.jb97ePHh.dpuf