Attracting new-to-cruise customers is “going to be a tough gig” once the pandemic is over, and agents “should fish where the fish are initially”.
That was the message from Royal Caribbean vice president of EMEA Ben Bouldin in the line’s first ‘Café Royal’ webinar for trade partners this week.
He said: “We have spent a lot of time trying to attract new cruisers. That could well be a bit more challenging in the short term. So I would be looking at the guests that have cruised before, and cruised with Royal before. Speak to them first as they will be ambassadors.
“There are lots of past guests who are desperate to cruise again, just waiting to understand how they can get back cruising. So go out to them. Go to those who have sailed with Anthem – even back as far as 2015. Fish where the fish are initially. The opportunity to talk to new guests will open up again over time but it will be a journey.”
Bouldin admitted that prices could be keener in future.
“There are going to be fewer people wanting to travel than a year ago, and there’s going to be more capacity than a year ago, so there will be a strong and competitive market.
“There will be significant costs that the cruise industry has to take on as a result of all the new measures and protocols that we’re going to sign up to. But it’s our challenge to ensure cruise remains an affordable holiday option.”
He added: “What you will see is a massive surge in energy and marketing around what a safe place a cruise ship is to take a holiday, and particularly with Royal Caribbean.”
Bouldin also used the webinar to reaffirm Royal’s commitment to agents.
“We are going to need agents even more tomorrow than we did yesterday”, he said.
“We rely on you and we have done in times on success when we’ve been launching new ships every year, and we’ve been humbled by the awards that you have voted for us to win.
“That’s won’t change moving forward. In fact, the only thing that’s going to change is that we are going to need you even more. We are going to need you guys to help us rebuild our business. There will be no shortage of asks of you, and no shortage of things that we are going to need your support with.”
He added: “Hopefully the protection of commissions on cancelled and rebooked holidays and the incentives we’ve put in place to encourage your customers to make a new booking, shows our support back. We are going to need you tomorrow even more than we did yesterday.”
Customer experience manager Sam Murdoch warned that such generous future cruise credits would not be easy to sustain the longer the cancellations go on.