New chief executive appointed for Carnival UK

Posted on 12 September, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

David Dingle has been appointed chairman of Carnival UK, with current executive vice-president of operations David Noyes (pictured) taking over as chief executive.

Noyes will have operating responsibility for P&O Cruises and Cunard from October 1, and both he and Dingle will report to Carnival Corporation president and chief executive Arnold Donald.

Donald said: “This moves allows us to strengthen further our overall leadership in the critically important UK marketplace, while also promoting from within to leverage the skills, experience and capabilities of our executive team.”

Dingle, who became chief executive in 2007, joined P&O Cruises in London in 1978 where, after holding a series of commercial positions, he became managing director in 2000. At the time of the merger of P&O Princess Cruises plc and the Carnival Corporation in April 2003, he became managing director of Carnival UK.

Noyes joined Carnival UK in 2011, in his current position. Prior to joining Carnival, he worked in the UK travel industry for 25 years, mainly with British Airways, where he was responsible for BA’s worldwide customer services operation, and latterly with Gray Dawes Travel as chief executive.

Elaine Holt will join Carnival UK on October 1 as David Noyes’ replacement as executive vice president operations following a career in the rail, road and airline industries. She has led a series of transformational programmes as executive chairman of East Coast Mainline and before that as managing director of First Capital Connect. Most recently she has acted as a non executive director of the Highways Agency.

Dingle said: “David Noyes is exceptionally placed to lead P&O Cruises and Cunard into the future and grow the business for the next generation. Elaine brings with her a strong blend of operational and customer services skills and will be a very valuable addition to our executive team.”

MSC sets out plans to triple UK passengers

Posted on 14 July, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

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.

Carnival UK questions how lines sell port excursions

Posted on 29 May, 2014 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival UK questions how lines sell port excursions

By Hollie-Rae Merrick

Carnival UK’s Gerard Tempest (pictured) believes cruise lines need to reassess their shore-excursion model as  third-party suppliers continue to expand.

Speaking at the Clia Selling Cruise Conference in Southampton, chief commercial officer Tempest said in light of the expansion of third-party suppliers he was putting a lot of thought into the best approach for selling shore excursions and tours.

Attraction World recently started selling cruise excursions and Cruisingexcursions.com increased its agent commission at the end of April.

Tempest said: “I just wonder whether third parties have been in our blind spot and we have let some of those parties eat our lunch. We, and I daresay some other cruise lines, are wondering about our traditional model of offering shore excursions and tours. How fit for the future is it? And is there another model we could look at?

“That requires a lot of thought and understanding of the marketplace, but it is something that we are certainly paying attention to.”

Tempest, who was a keynote speaker at the Clia conference, also spoke about the excitement surrounding P&O Cruises’ Britannia and Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas, which will both sail from Southampton on launch next year.

“Anthem of the Seas and Britannia will complement each other and will work together to stimulate the market,” he said. “The customers for Britannia and those for Royal Caribbean will sit comfortably together.

“We are excited about Anthem coming into the UK because of what it will do to stimulate cruise.”

Stuart Leven, UK boss of Royal Caribbean, agreed, saying: “The industry’s job becomes far easier with companies such as Royal Caribbean and P&O deploying their newest and best hardware in the UK.”