SILVERSEA Cruises has frozen prices in its new 1999/2000 Cruise Atlas brochure, but has stressed it will not be discounting its product.
Vice-president of sales and marketing for the UK and overseas, Steve Odell, said the company had increased prices by 40%-50% over the past few years and did not want to raise them further. The average price of a Silversea cruise is now ú7,200-ú7,500 per passenger.
“The year ahead is going to be a challenging one,” said Odell. “We feel 1999 is a formative year in a way, because we are introducing new ships in September 2000 and May 2001.”
The addition of the two ships will more than double Silversea’s capacity.
“The idea is to structure our pricing so that we can introduce the new ships without having to amend prices,” he added.
However, Odell does not believe that a price discounting policy would appeal to Silversea customers seeking a prestige product.
Instead, the company has included subsidised add-on benefits in the new brochure, as an alternative way of stimulating demand.
For instance, it is offering complementary first and business-class flight upgrades on selected sailings and the option of a two-night stay at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Bali for ú210 per person.
Odell said Silversea had included all its top-selling regions in its new Cruise Atlas. However, it has also included extra Mediterranean and Northern European product in the summer.
A cruise to St Petersburg in summer 1999 starts at ú6,495 per person for a verandah suite.