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Checking the pulse of the cruise industry at ICS in Madrid

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Executives representing multiple cruise brands shared their views on what is currently driving their own businesses and wider industry discussion points during panel discussions at the International Cruise Summit 2017 in Madrid today.

Giuseppe Carino, vp guest experience and onboard revenue at Costa Cruises cited sustainability in the area of food management plus Costa’s foray into seasonal homeporting in India, as key pulse changers.

Carino called the line’s first season offering ex-India sailings, ‘a great success both for European and locally-sourced passengers and will be repeated next year.’

Christian Boell, md Europe at Norwegian Cruise Line highlighted the need for cruising to follow landside trends and, as a result, his brands introduction of Premium All Inclusive across Europe to try and match what is happening in resorts.

He also cited the move away from back to back weekly voyages by offering slightly longer sailings and targeting China as a source market as key innovations.

Doug Prothero, md The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection spoke of the challenges of taking the luxury hotel brand experience to sea and recreating the landside guest experience onto a cruise ship, whilst Craig Milan vp itineraries and destinations at Virgin Voyages highlighted the beauty of developing a product from the ground up.

‘Our approach is a complete sea change which has not been easy for a legacy guy like me, for example our staterooms will be very different from what is already out there, even the terminology is different at Virgin with balconies called sea terraces, guests known as sailors and cruises called voyages.’ Milan would not be drawn on what the brand will be calling the crew.

On product development he noted, ‘with Virgin having its roots in music, music will be important on our ships too. We are building a brand as well as new ships.’

Benoit Perrin, cfo Pullmantur, spoke of the line’s re-orientation and focus on ‘Spanish lifestyle cruising’ as adapting its product to suit the Spanish and Latin American source markets it now concentrates on. ‘Moving onboard lunch times to start at 2PM is just one example,’ he said.

Talking about sustainability, Carino outlined Costa’s approach to reducing food losses during the preparation process and the consumption by passengers. ‘We have joined forces with Winnow, a technology company that provides chefs and their staff with creative ways to run a more efficient operation and are changing the culture in our kitchens whilst educating our guests to be responsible in the buffet and only take what they need – Taste not Waste is our motto,’ he explained.

Focussing on the Med, Belen Wanguemert, avp and md Europe Royal Caribbean Cruises spoke of challenges: ‘geopolitics means the Med is becoming smaller every day and with more ships deployed in the West Med plus the same concentration for package holidays, it is putting pressure on destinations and causing massification of tourism in certain popular spots,’ she remarked.

‘It is essential that we work with the local communities to change perceptions of the cruise industry as it is not soley a cruise issue,’ she added. Wanguemert outlined solutions such as starting tours from different places in Palma so the island can absorb higher numbers of guests.

Talking about the German market, Tine Olemann, director port ops, shorex and ground ops TUI Cruises was very optimistic for the future growth of Europe’s top source market. She referenced a report by the Institute for Future Studies which showed in 2025 over 33m Germans will be over 50 years old. ‘The family target group is decreasing so we need to adapt to this changing demographic.’

On the issue of passenger pollution and sustainability, Olemann said, ‘TUI feels it makes sense for destinations to put a cap on the number of cruise ships visiting in a day if the hinterland cannot absorb such large numbers of visitors.’

In a session moderated by cruise expert Mark Robinson, he asked Olemann if TUI is looking to source passengers outside German speakers? ‘While the product will stay German-speaking we are reaching out a little to Scandinavians as they are a little familiar with the German language,’ she offered.

On the impact of social media marketing, Cruise & Maritime Voyages' head of marketing, Mike Hall, noted the average age of its passengers is 67 yet its biggest engagement with its audience is on social media via Facebook where it talks to current and future customers about its ships, deployment and destinations: ‘During the last 18 months CMV has developed an advertising strategy on Facebook and for £1,000 spent it is giving us £50,000 ROI,’ he revealed. ‘I think it is the most under-utilised advertiswing medium in the cruise industry,’ he exclaimed.

Javier Marin, director of itinerary planning, full charters and charter flights, at Pullmantur Cruises said the line is developing products ‘out of our comfort zone; including longer itineraries such as a 14 night Arctic cruise from Trondheim and West Med weekly cruises visiting smaller ports such as of Portofino, Piombino (for Elba) and Ajaccio.’

At Marella Cruises, ‘destinations are and remain the key part of our product presentation,’ noted Jacqui Nobile, port & shorex ops manager, ‘and with a huge number of repeaters, we get those who choose a cruise because it has one new port call on the itinerary.’

Asked by SCN if CMV, Pullmantur and Marella would consider newbuilds in the next five years, Hall said CMV had no plans for new ships: ‘with orderbooks rammed it opens up the market for second hand ships and we are in dialogue for expansion via this type of tonnage.’

Marin commented, ‘having just invested some €20m on refurbishing Sovereign we are concentrating our efforts on product development and new itineraries but the Pullmantur executive added, ‘never say never on a newbuild’. A statement echoed by Nobile who reminded, ‘Marella’s fleet modernisation strategy is to introduce newer tonnage than that of the current fleet but it’s a case of never say never on the newbuild front.’