Riding the crest of the boom in cruising

In an office liberally sprinkled with ships models, photographs of cruise ships, certificates of excellence in cruising and a range of other cruise memorabilia, it is impossible not to realise when you enter the offices of eCruising and Cruise Agent that this is a very significant hub of the cruising industry in Australia.

Started by Brett in 2000, he said that he became interested in cruising in the mid 70’s when he and some mates took two cruises and he recalls paying $A995 dollars for a quad share cabin on the P&O’s old Oriana on the standard Pacific run although he says he recalls going to Noumea and New Zealand and the weather was that absolutely terrible. 

He added, for some passengers cruising out of Australia, things have not changed that much, with some of the weather around NZ still terrible as evidenced by the recent troubles experienced by the Pacific Star and P&O cruises out of Australia still about $999 for a quad share cabin!

He stressed though that the local traditional P&O product is now a very small part of eCrusing and Cruise Agent’s business today, with the business experiencing and enjoying massive growth in outbound travel to cruise by what Brett described as well heeled Australians.

He said that he was very fortunate in having seen the boom in cruising coming and that it has boomed ever since, with when he started the office consisting of two staff, now employing over twenty two.

Brett said that while cruising globally was growing at 8.5%, it was growing at 18% in Australia and reportedly by 40% in Asia by 2010, with the number of cruise passengers globally having doubled.

He said that some people in Australia had a perception that cruising was Pacific cruising and no more, but the baby boomers have begun to experience four and five star cruising overseas, seeing a different type of cruising, which is why the larger part of the growth of cruising by Australians consisted of Aussies going elsewhere to cruise.

He added, “Local cruising is less that 10% of our business although the visiting world cruise type ships are popular.”

Brett told The Mole that he recognised the benefits of selling direct from the beginning, which is why he set up eCruising, but added, “Cruise agents were beginning to experience consumers taking our packages to agents around the country and asking them to book them for them.”  “The agent business then just got bigger and bigger and we set up Cruise Agents, which gives us it good mix and is a good part of our business now and of course, we pay all the standard commissions.”

Brett said that while bigger and bigger ships are being built, he really felt that well heeled Aussies were looking for smaller ships, which is why the Pacific Princess was so popular and equally so why it was surprising that she was removed from cruising in Australia.

He said, “I like cruises of about 600 to 800 passengers, because you can get to know people on board, there is no queuing to disembark or for coaches and the whole experience is much more pleasurable.”  The larger ships are OK for the mass market but they are really glorified bottom end cruises and not what I believe Australians want.”  “Demand out of Australia tend to be for better quality but still good value cruising.”

He added, “There are some even more exciting new trends emerging but if I tell you I will have to kill you!”

In terms of future growth, Brett said, “I think that Asia is going to be huge and at last Costa Allegra has given people the opportunity to do decent fly cruises out of Hong Kong and I am delighted to say that we are now a PSA for Costa.”

Brett concluded by saying that agents are very important to eCruising and of course Cruise Agents and the message to agents is quite clear, “We are there to provide total packages to agents which include flights, hotels, transfers and of course the cruise and even better that that agents get 10% commission right across the whole package, which is more than the airlines pay.”  “For example many of our cruise tours are $20,000 a couple, meaning agents can make $2,000 commission across everything they sell!”

He added, “We sell all cruises, that’s 33 cruise lines and 18 airlines around the world, so it is practically impossible to find a cruise in the world that we cannot sell.”

“We choose not to be preferred with the agency chains because I don’t agree with the model as really at the end of the day nobody benefits, least of all the consumer and in any case we sell to all the chains, because they and their clients demand our product.”

Interview with Brett Dudley, Managing Director of eCruising and Cruise Agents by The Mole

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