Royal Caribbean says it has “tweaked” its programmes for 2021 in order to “try and optimise the summer”.
Joining a Travel Weekly webcast from Miami, president Michael Bayley said the line had introduced shorter cruises in Europe, which he anticipates will be popular with the “drive-to” [port] market, and said he was “excited by the hardware” in the region.
“We’ve got Anthem coming into the UK, we’ve got Harmony in Barcelona and we’ve got Odyssey in Rome,” he said. “Spectrum is phenomenal. So we’ve got great products, and we’ve tweaked as best we can to try to optimise the summer.”
Bayley added: “Everybody had this vision of how 2020 was going to be, and then all of this happened. And then all over the world, all over Europe, things have changed, including our competitors; where ships have been deployed; changes in other products.
“What we’ve tried to do is find the right harmony with how we see demand coming in for products in summer 2021. So a lot of it’s been about tweaking and changing to really optimise what we see, with demand that’s currently coming in.”
Bayley described Europe in the summer as “incredibly desirable”.
“It’s the place to be both for Europeans and for Americans and for people all over the world. There may be changes, of course, because at the moment there’s a patchwork of restrictions, guidance limitations, quarantines all over the world and all over Europe.
“But as we look into summer 21, we’re hopeful and optimistic that a lot of this will have stabilised and we’ll be in a totally different place as it relates to the Covid challenge.
“Globally, we think Europe was, is and will always be a super-popular destination. And when this stuff gets behind us, I think we’re going to see a huge increase in travel.”
Bayley said Royal Caribbean remained fiercely committed to the UK market, despite current FCDO guidance advising Brits against cruising.
“We’ve been committed to the British market for decades, nothing’s going to change. We see it as a critical market for Royal Caribbean. We’re hopeful this terrible thing is going to end at some point, we’re optimistic that people are going to travel, we’re getting bookings in the UK market for our products in the summer.
“We feel pretty hopeful that the summer is going be a good summer for all of us; for everybody in travel.”