Ahead of his appearance as one of two keynote speakers at this month’s Selling Cruise Conference, Andy Stuart, Norwegian executive vice-president of global sales and passenger services, spoke to Hollie-Rae Merrick
Andy Stuart’s career in the cruise industry didn’t start as many people might expect.
He “tripped into the industry” when he lent Norwegian’s then sales director Geraldine Noon a jumper at a softball match – and a year later was offered a sales role covering the UK market.
Although he never got his jumper back, he did go on to manage the UK office for nine years before moving to the US in 1997 to take on the role of vice‑president of sales planning.
Stuart is now executive vice‑president of global sales and passenger services and has been with the line for 25 years.
Later this month he will take to the stage at the Clia Selling Cruise Conference in Southampton as one of the keynote speakers.
25 years of changes
During his time with Norwegian, Stuart has seen a lot of change in the industry – particularly in on-board innovations – and impressive growth in the UK market.
“When I started, Norwegian was largely irrelevant in the UK market with 1,500 passengers a year – it wasn’t a significant market,” he said. “But they were looking for the first sales guy to put in the work with travel agents in the UK.”
By the time he moved to the US, UK passenger figures were up to almost 50,000.
Stuart said he is excited about addressing agents at the conference because the trade will always play an important role to Norwegian.
“The industry as a whole has always been very supportive of agents. The majority of business for most of the lines throughout my time in the industry has come through agents,” he said.
Agents ‘have reach’
“People ask me if I think we
will have any business through agents in five years’ time and
to me it’s an easy question – we definitely will.
“The reach we get through agents is far beyond something we could do on our own.
“But travel agents aren’t the same as they used to be when I started: there are many different models now and I will be focusing on that at the conference.”
Stuart believes online agents won’t necessarily outlast other agency models. It’s a question he said he’d been asked on numerous occasions, but he added: “One size doesn’t meet all needs.”
He said Norwegian was constantly encouraging agents to engage with its products and training, whether through webinars, its NCLU training website and ship launch celebrations.
And while countless agents engage with cruise lines to help bolster their bookings, Stuart said it was a bugbear for the industry that some agents still don’t take advantage of the training and tools provided.
“A travel agent has to know everything about all different cruise lines and these tools we provide should be used – a lot of investment goes into it,” he said.
Stuart believes it’s vitally important that agents have good product knowledge, put the right passengers on the right ship and then help to boost demand through positive feedback.
“The product is most important; the price shouldn’t be the most important question,” he added.
“We shouldn’t commoditise the industry by focusing on price.
“Each cruise line is different and we need to make that clear.”