In the 40 months since its Covid-delayed inaugural sailing in September 2021, Virgin Voyages has established its adult-only cruise offering in the UK trade, chief executive Nirmal Saverimuttu and UK sales director SJ Walker discuss why they believe it got the formula right in 2024 and what comes next for the line.
On… confidence
Saverimuttu: There is tremendous momentum in the cruise industry right now. Last year was a real banner year for us. Our ships were full, revenues were up 60% and Black Friday was four times bigger than the year before, with 70% of those being new-to-brand bookings. Everything is looking really positive.
It was an inflection point where we put the brand on the map and people really started to understand the product.
It got to the point where all agents knew that if anyone was travelling without kids, they should suggest Virgin Voyages. That was something we had been working hard at making sure people understood.
If I had to think of one word to sum up last year for us, it would be ‘confidence’ – most importantly, confidence with advisors who know they can trust us as a brand. It’s been really important for us to build that confidence with the UK trade and to continue building on it.
On… investment
Saverimuttu: There is a trend in travel to cut back and reduce quality, but we always feel the way to boost profit margins is to invest and increase quality.
That will be a big theme for us, to ensure we can continue to offer more value for money, rather than looking at taking things out.
We need to keep investing to accelerate our innovation pipeline because of our high repeat rate. Across the ships we get up to 40-50% [of passengers] rebooking, and across the brand we are at a repeat rate of about 30%-plus within any given month, which is phenomenal.
We hope to get that number closer to 40-50% by the end of this year or early next year.
If I had to think of one word to sum up last year for us, it would be ‘confidence’ – most importantly, confidence with advisors who know they can trust us as a brand
We have to refresh our product across our fleet every two to three years, from deployment to menus, restaurants and entertainment, as opposed to every four to five years, because our Sailors [passengers] crave something new every time.
This year and next, there will be a lot of refreshments to dining and entertainment, including our new restaurant concept Lucky Lotus, which is on Scarlet Lady, being rolled out to our other ships.
We’ve received a lot of requests for more live music and comedy that is more accessible, so we will be putting that in too.
We’re also investing in technology and service-related issues, such as a beta version of our customer app in the first quarter, with a fully developed version to follow soon after.
On… the UK trade
Walker: We cannot thank our First Mates [agents] enough, because we had a sensational year in 2024.
December exceeded all of our expectations, and January is continuing on a very, very strong growth trajectory.
Our previous investment in ship visits has paid off in dividends, so we will be doing more of them in Portsmouth this year, as well as our frontline incentive ‘Bring on Ibiza’, which runs until the end of February.
Our current wave campaign is tried and tested with our First Mates, and leads on a strong price-focused message of 80% off for a second Sailor and up to $300 bar credit.
We will continue this investment in our UK trade partners, and we have listened to their feedback concerning our pricing this year. This has traditionally been quite dynamic, but we have found that a stabilised pricing model, which was introduced in December, has been received very positively by our partners, because it helps them from a planning, marketing and education perspective.
In the UK, we will continue to grow our trade distribution, deepening relationships with our partners and working with new ones, and we will invest in our UK sales team to bring in some new faces in the next few months so we can support our First Mates in the best way possible.
On… Brilliant Lady
Walker: We are so excited that our new ship Brilliant Lady, which will launch from New York in September, will come to the UK in August. She is our fourth Lady ship to come to Portsmouth and we will have an opportunity to invite some First Mates on board. It is going to be unique and very special, so stay tuned for more details.
Saverimuttu: The UK will be the only market that will have all four Lady ships visiting by September this year, which symbolically is a huge show of Virgin Voyages’ commitment to the market.
On… itineraries
Saverimuttu: Brilliant Lady really completes the itinerary picture for us, because now we can sail shorter or longer voyages in the Caribbean, the West Coast of the US, Alaska and the Mediterranean.
The Far East and Australia are on our roadmap for the future, but we have had some logistical challenges getting our ships there because only one is Panama Canal compliant.
The UK will be the only market that will have all four Lady ships visiting by September this year
Previously, we offered four to seven-night itineraries, but now our longer 11-night sailings are proving very popular.
Next year will bring our first Alaska season, for which we are seeing significant volume on Brilliant Lady.
The Panama Canal voyage has also been one of our most popular sailings, selling out in close to no time at all.
And we have some surprises around themed voyages coming out later this year, as well as our comedy festival and Celebration Voyages.
On… 2025 and beyond
Saverimuttu: This year will be a continuation of the journey we have been on in 2024 to build confidence in the market.
Based on our current booked position, 2025 is set to be up 50% on last year, which was a phenomenal year for us.
We do not rest on our laurels and we are a brand that is very much open to feedback. I really do feel we are building the brand together with our advisor community and we have been very honest about our learning journey. I would love to receive more feedback in 2025 so we can continue to innovate.
As for growing the fleet, we are very focused on launching our fourth ship later this year. There is no reason the brand cannot grow beyond that because the business is healthy and profitable.
And, if you look at the overall holiday market, the adult-only part is expected to grow by two or three times in the next few years.
Historically, there has not been a kid-free travel option at this price point in cruise – there were only more luxury-orientated products on smaller ships. So adult-only is not a niche, but a big part of the market that has been overlooked. I feel we can be very confident about the future.