Travel agents should not revert to discounting or rule out attracting newcomers to cruise as they promote forward bookings, according to experts.
Speakers at the Clia Virtual Cruise Showcase said the response of consumers to the launch of programmes into 2022 and 2023 demonstrated that demand remained and there was significant interest in new vessels and itineraries.
Alex Delamere-White, vice-president of sales & marketing for P&O Cruises, said the response to the line’s programme launch this year had outstripped 2019, with double-digit growth from newcomers.
More: Cruise ships ‘safer than your hometown’ due to Covid testing plans
Admitting he had “not necessarily expected” the trend, he said P&O was “really buoyed” by the performance it had seen.
Graham Sadler, senior vice-president and managing director EMEA of Regent Seven Seas Cruises, said the line’s world cruise released in September was filled within a week and said its 2022-23 programme had “far outstripped anything we have done in the past”, demonstrating customers were willing to book “long-haul and long-duration”.
He added: “People are willing to pay the full price. Pricing a couple of years ago was important but there are different factors now and price is lower down. The deep, deep discounts [of previous years], I’m not sure will need to be around.”
Delamere-White said price was a lower consideration for clients when weighed against whether the person or company they were booking with was “someone they can trust” to help them navigate a period of uncertainty.
And Antonio Paradiso, managing director of MSC Cruises UK & Ireland, said lines were increasingly needing to show they could offer flexible options, with the focus in the upcoming wave period likely to be on “flexibility over cheaper fares”.
Peter Shanks, managing director of Silversea Cruises, said agents should focus primarily on cruises from the autumn of 2021 and early in 2022, which they could be confident would be operating.
He added: “There are big numbers. There are two million British cruisers a year, and of that number a million are addicted, they go every year or twice a year. They haven’t been anywhere for a year, so the pent-up demand is absolutely there.
“In round numbers, two million go, one million are addicted, and if you look at the social media feeds of all the cruise lines, they are desperate to get back to sea.”
Lucia Rowe, managing director of A-Rosa, said the line was seeing a growing interest from newcomers or from those who had previously taken an ocean cruise but had explored river cruising when it restarted in Europe this summer because “it was there, it was accessible and it was safe”.
More: Cruise ships ‘safer than your hometown’ due to Covid testing plans