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Tag Archives: new capacity

Cruise Industry Capacity Growth Concerns Have Been Debunked

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With the cruise industry set to grow at between 4 and 6 per cent per year according to the 2021 Cruise Industry News Annual Report, are there concerns about too many ships and weakened pricing? 

No, according to Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings President and CEO Frank Del Rio.

“I think that the narrative of too much capacity coming online pre-pandemic had pretty much been debunked,” he said, on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “All the cruise line were taking on the new (ships), digesting that new capacity very nicely and increasing pricing. And so we always – our comeback always was, we only have 28 ships. There are many underserved markets that we simply don’t have ships to operate in.

“And so we’re eager to get our hands on our new vessels, all nine of them across the three brands. And what we’re seeing now within the pandemic is pricing is strong, demand is stronger than ever. I mean, to give you a nugget of data. The Oceania and Regent brands reached their 50 per cent load factor for 2022 over 100 days earlier than they did for the record year of 2019 … pricing power is there.”

Construction starts on Star Cruises megaship

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Star Cruises has cut the first steel for a 4,500-passenger ship scheduled for delivery in the fall of 2016.

The unnamed ship, and a similar one due to enter service in fall 2017, will sail in Asia.

The Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, is building the vessels, which will be the largest by far in the Star Cruises fleet at 151,000 gross tons. Today, the line’s largest ship is the SuperStar Virgo, at 75,000 gross tons and capacity for about 2,000 passengers.

“The delivery of these two newly commissioned mega cruise ships will enable us to continue to strengthen and further enhance our competitiveness across our key source markets,” said Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, CEO  of Genting Hong Kong, the company that owns Star Cruises.

One of ship’s unique features will be a “street night market” with hawker stalls serving delicacies from various Asian countries. The megaship also will have a theater and a water park with slides.

Cruise lines told to work hard for repeat custom

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Cruise companies must do all that they can to ensure that first-time passengers don’t end up falling into the ‘one and done’ category.

That was one of the main messages to come out of the recent CLIA UK gathering in Southampton, with Travel Weekly reporting that the industry was also told to continue focusing on passenger growth.

While the mood was upbeat, the business of cruising demands that these lines are always looking at the future of the industry. And according to the experts, it will become increasingly important in the future to ensure that new repeat customers are being created.

“The lines are desperate to ensure that new capacity and competitive pricing don’t have a negative impact on yields which, for many, are already much lower than they would like,” the news company stated.

And when it comes to convincing first-time passengers to become repeat customers, the conference heard that the key is to make it clear to them just how diverse a cruise can be.