Royal Caribbean deployment presents ‘huge opportunity’ for UK agents

The president of Royal Caribbean has assured UK agents of the importance of the market and that deploying an older ship from Southampton in 2027 is not a downgrade.

 

Earlier in the year, UK agents were split over the deployment of older and smaller ships from Southampton for summer 2027, including Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas.

 

Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast about the decision, Michael Bayley said deploying Mariner from Southampton was “a good thing”, adding: “I don’t think we think of it in terms of age of ships.

 

“We typically look at ships in terms of its capacity, how it performs in a market and what it’s capable of doing in terms of itineraries.

 

“It’s not like somebody sits there going, ‘Let’s put a new ship here and an old ship there’. It’s more about a whole series of decisions that need to be made to deploy all the ships throughout the coming years.”

 

He stressed there were “a lot of variables at play” and that the cruise line had “always had an incredibly long relationship in the UK market” which had “always been successful”.

 

Bayley highlighted Legend of the Seas would be coming “to a city close” to the UK, but that did not mean the fly-cruise market was more important than ex-UK.

 

He explained: “I don’t think we see it through that lens. We have a whole range of products that are coming on to the market, and we try to place the products in destinations that are: [number] one, the most desirable, and [number] two, the most accessible.”

 

He said the decision to homeport Legend in Barcelona was due to the destination being “right in the middle of the Mediterranean” and “an incredibly popular summer destination” for those coming from abroad, for example from Singapore, Australia, the US and the UK, and therefore “a winning formula”.

 

Bayley added the reasoning for not putting Legend in Southampton was that it would add two days to an itinerary to get to the Mediterranean, turning a seven-day sailing into a 10-day sailing.

 

“That is just simply not as popular,” he explained. “People like the seven days and how we think about it more is the range of products Royal has in the world which are very accessible, and for our travel partners, thinking of the brand through that lens is probably very helpful, particularly as we push out more of these destination experiences.”

 

He stressed these new destinations presented “a huge opportunity” for travel agents to sell “exciting products”.

 

Bayley added the company was planning to have hundreds of agents on board for the launch of Legend, with more details to be unveiled in due course.

 

Looking ahead, he said he saw the UK market “developing” alongside all major markets and an opportunity for agents to “specialise”.

 

“It is not a one-dimensional distribution,” he said. “There are different travel partners, businesses, and operators who can find opportunity in the product line-up that we have.

 

“We see that in a big way in the United States, [where] there are certain companies and travel partners who specialise in certain products, which they sell heavily and deeply and they’re remarkably successful.

 

“I would say to the UK travel partners to focus on where you really think the opportunity is going to be for your business, and we’re willing and ready to step up and support you somewhere.”