The performance of the UK market is now a vital factor in the overall success of Royal Caribbean, according to the operator’s chief executive.
Speaking to Travel Weekly on Allure of the Seas this week ahead of its official naming in Fort Lauderdale next week, Adam Goldstein said it was vital the UK market delivered for the operator.
“The market must come through for us on these types of initiatives,” he said. “It’s not like 25 years ago when we were interested in the UK but in the final analysis the US performance would determine the company’s performance.
“We are now reliant on the UK to perform overall. When you must perform for the company to perform it’s a very different environment that it just being something nice to talk about.”
Goldstein said the global economic outlook could be better and that there were no signs yet of a significant turnaround, but said he was confident that the operator would be successful.
“Our job is to execute our plans and strategies in the world as it is. Clearly everyone would prefer a stronger macro-economic environment but we think we can be successful as things are.”
Royal Caribbean will be the biggest cruise operator in Europe next year in terms of the number of beds deployed in the region, taking over from Italian-style Carnival brand Costa Cruises.
Goldstein added: “We have continued to maintain a very healthy growth rate in the market and have clearly emerged as one of the leaders in the UK.
“We will continue to be aggressive in the market. We have had a presence there for nearly 40 years and our brand is respected, we have good repeat custom and we have continued to introduce products that are important.”
Royal Caribbean believes the international nature of its product is unrivalled and it will soon have 50% of guests sourced outside of the core US cruise market from 40 different nationalities.
“Royal Caribbean’s versatility is unmatched in the world of cruising. Anywhere we go with our 22 ships, it’s identifiably a Royal Caribbean experience and only we are able to flex our product so consumers of all nationalities are really pleased by what they are experiencing,” said Goldstein.