No end to growth of cruise sector

The UK cruise market is set for major open-ended growth – that was the message to UK Cruise Convention delegates given by senior executives from the world’s top two cruise companies – Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises – and the fastest-growing, MSC Cruises.

Peter Shanks, UK director of one Carnival brand (Princess Cruises) and managing director of another (Ocean Village) said:  “If I was back in travel retail senior management, I would have no hesitation in directing staff to focus all their efforts on cruising.”

Cunard Line president and managing director Carol Marlow said:  “Every time new ships come to the UK, they are being filled and I can see no sign of an end to that.”

She also said that there would probably be more Cunard ships built to follow  Queen Victoria, which is introduced at the end of 2007.

PSA director Bill Gibbons quoted recent consumer research which showed that, while 11% of UK residents had been on a cruise in the last five years,  33% said they would be taking one in the next five. 

Seatrade managing director Chris Hayman pointed out that the number of cruises booked worldwide every year was set to increase from 15m in 2006 to about 25m by 2015 and that the UK was currently growing faster than any major cruise market. 

It was also significant, he said, that more ships than ever were being built specifically for the UK and other European markets.

MSC Cruises USA president and chief executive Rick Sasso pointed out that, during every decade since the 1970s, the North American cruise industry had been warned that it was building too many ships but every time the ships had been filled – and at a profit to the cruise lines.

He said: “We managed to do this despite the limitations of our main cruise destination – the Caribbean, where one island is pretty much like another. 

“In Europe, the destinations have so much more to offer so it is going to be a much easier sell especially with the massive amount of promotional dollars that are going to be spent by the cruise lines here.”

He also pointed out that Europe was turning into a year-round cruise destination just like the Caribbean. 

“It used to be just May to October,” he said, “but now ships are staying March to November and some even year-round in the Mediterranean.”

Royal Caribbean International sales and marketing director Jo Rzymowska said:  “Frankly, anyone who says there is going to be over-capacity in the UK cruise market is talking out of their backsides.” 

But she also sounded a word of warning: “All those misconceptions are still out there about cruising being boring, old-fashioned and the rest – I know because I held them all myself when I first came into the industry. 

“Cruise lines and our travel agency partners still have a big job to do to get the right message across.”

She also said that it was crucial to move with the times.  “Look at us – we all saw the low-cost airlines as a threat but now we all work with them.

“It is also important to engage online with customers, monitoring forum sites like cruisecritic.com which can be such a powerful positive or negative.”

She pointed out that, within minutes of the namings of RCI’s new Liberty of the Seas and Ocean Village’s second ship, there was footage sent out by guests straight onto YouTube