Tag Archives: Mediterranean Cruise

Biggest, newest ships can thrive in Europe, Asia: Goldstein

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Goldstein - 'In the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the largest ships can be viable and thrive'Goldstein – ‘In the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the largest ships can be viable and thrive’

Oasis of the Seas turning around in Barcelona this month and Quantum of the Seas going to China next year show that Europe and Asia can handle cruising’s biggest and newest hardware. As Adam Goldstein, president and coo of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., put it: ‘In the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia-Pacific, the largest ships can be viable and thrive.’

When Oasis of the Seas made its inaugural call at Barcelona two weekends ago, it generated three times the media response of anything the company has ever done in the region, Goldstein said. Apart from the publicity, the operations were impressive—a ‘great accomplishment’ by the Port of Barcelona.

‘It clearly shows Europe is capable right now of supporting the biggest ships in the world and the infrastructure exists to support Allure of the Seas for a full season next year,’ Goldstein told Seatrade Med in Barcelona last week. ‘We now have the opportunity to deploy our biggest and best new ships here. This bodes well for the Mediterranean.’

It’s the culmination of a sequence of development. The current Oasis ‘micro-season’ paves the way for Allure’s full season. Going step by step over time gives everyone the chance to acclimate.

‘The infrastructure that exists to handle 6.4m passengers wasn’t here 20 years ago,’ Goldstein said. ‘The fundamental capability to accommodate growth in the Mediterranean is available if there’s adequate planning.’

From a source market perspective, Europe remains ‘a mainstay of the business for us and the industry. We’d all like to see the macroeconomic situation in Europe be better than it is,’ he added. However, the good news is that Spain is showing signs of recovery.

The market is growing, although at a slower rate. ‘We’re able to generate profitability here. It’s really attractive to cruise in Europe. The business is doing well,’ Goldstein told Seatrade Insider during an interview in Barcelona.

Last year cruises in Europe attracted nearly 1m non-Europeans, demonstrating resilience following the global recession.

And Asia is emerging as the third major cruise operating region of the world.

After the recent deal to sell Celebrity Century to China’s Ctrip.com International, it’s too early to tell how the relationship will develop. ‘We’re in discussions to see,’ Goldstein said. ‘They’re already a producer for us. We hope to maintain and build the relationship.’

The fact that Quantum of the Seas will operate year-round from Shanghai is ‘remarkable. It’s an amazing development for the Royal Caribbean International brand and the company to so quickly have one of our newest ships operating in China.

‘I don’t think anybody foresaw something like this,’ he said, adding that just 10 years ago, China was ‘a gray spot on the map’ for the cruise industry.

Next year Royal Caribbean will have four ships there, counting also Mariner of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and Legend of the Seas.

Norwegian at cruise capacity ‘tipping point’

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By Lucy Huxley

Norwegian at cruise capacity 'tipping point' Norwegian Cruise Line is coming to a “tipping point” in terms of new capacity arriving and needs to “get serious” about growing international markets to ensure it fills it.

The line, which recently launched Breakaway (pictured) and Getaway, will add another four new ships between 2015 and 2020.

Francis Riley, director of international markets, said: “We need to be looking at the long-term strategic investment in international markets; whether that’s through marketing, buying more charter seats, or how we’re driving more distribution.”

He said getting more agents selling Norwegian, and more training and education to make sure they are targeting the right customers, was key.

“The biggest opportunity for us is to support the capacity growth that’s coming in with all our new ships by developing our international business – and that bodes really well for the UK as it’s our biggest single market outside the US.”

Riley added: “I think my biggest fear is that typically, there’s only one cruise specialist in any agency. That keeps me up at night.

“Every agent sells a package but not every agent feels comfortable selling a cruise, and that has to be my biggest concern as the sector grows. It’s our responsibility as an industry to tackle this issue.”

He said he understood agents had a lot of pressures so said it was “important to make them understand the differentiation between the cruise brands”.

Riley claimed Norwegian’s Partners First scheme was enjoying huge success by rewarding agents that work in true partnership with the line to grow both their businesses.

He claimed that despite reducing base commission to 10%, Norwegian had paid out “just as much if not more” in rewards to those key agents that had performed really well for the line.

“Agents have the opportunity to earn well in excess of the base rate and many do. Many of them are retaining more commission than they ever have done with us,” he said.

Riley claimed Norwegian, having posted 24 quarters of consecutive growth, could now truly claim to be “industry leading rather than industry following”.

“By any measure, whether it’s EBITDA, net per share, net revenue, Norwegian is now best in class,” he said.

MSC sets out plans to triple UK passengers

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MSC Cruises has set out ambitious plans to grow the number of UK passengers it serves.

According to chief executive Giles Hawke, the company reckons it can attract 200,000 Britons per year by 2017 – up from 60,000 today and an almost threefold increase.

Mr Hawke made these comments in an interview with Travel Weekly, mentioning a raft of new marketing initiatives intended to support the campaign.

MSC, which mostly serves the Mediterranean cruise market and recently announced it will add a further four ships to its fleet, also plans to charter three flights per week from Heathrow to ferry Britons into Italian ports.

Two of the planes will fly to Genoa, with the other landing in Venice.

In time, though, MSC wants to reintroduce Mediterranean cruises that actually depart from the UK itself, potentially by launching a Fantasia-class ship in 2016.