The president of Carnival Corporation says that British brands P&O Cruises and Cunard are “fundamental” to its business and vowed to continue to invest in the British market post-Covid.
Arnold Donald described the British lines, among nine in Carnival’s wider business, as “super-brands” with “great history and legacy”.
Speaking during a Travel Weekly Future of Travel Week session, he was positive about the return of cruising in the UK market but said he understood current restrictions on ocean cruise travel.
“P&O and Cunard are two of our anchor brands,” he said. “These are brands that have been around a long time, and have great history and legacy. People love those brands so they are very central to our corporation.”
He added: “British people love cruising. As a source market – not only for those two brands – we carry a lot of British guests across our fleet. It’s a very important market to the cruise industry, and certainly to our company. So absolutely we see continued investment and priority in the British cruise market – there’s no question about that. P&O and Cunard are two of our strongest brands and they are fundamental to our business. These are unbelievable super-brands, really.”
Donald said: “In the UK, I know there’s pent-up demand. A lot of the guests are ready to go, especially loyal guests. People are booking the second half of next year. People really want to cruise. But in this moment the UK is still battling trying to mitigate the spread of this virus. We will follow whatever the authorities say is in the best interests of public health. I’m no expert but from what I’ve heard it sounds like a reasonable approach [in the UK] at this point in time.”
