Azamara managing director David Duff has hinted the line is planning on building new ships as it looks to expand its fleet.
All four of the line’s current ships were previously owned by other cruise lines and were bought by Azamara and refurbished.
But in an interview with Travel Weekly, Duff suggested the line might break from tradition and is looking to build its own vessels instead of buying existing ships, thanks to backing from its private equity owner Sycamore, which acquired Azamara from Royal Caribbean in 2021.
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When asked if the line has plans for additional hardware, Duff said: “I don’t think there’s a cruise line out there that’s not planning for something.
“We need to be prepared, and there are plans and discussions going on.
“I think our ideal would be to build new [ships], and I think there’s a variety of reasons why that would be the right way for us to go. But watch this space.”
Duff spoke to Travel Weekly during the ninth of 10 agent ship visits the line had scheduled for this year, which saw more than 300 agents board Azamara vessels from locations all around the UK.
He hailed the success of the visits and emphasised how valuable the “very active agent community” is to the line.
“[The ship visits] are a very important part of our schedule over the year,” he said. We want to get agents exposure of the product and I think there’s nothing that beats actually seeing, touching and feeling the ships.
“We’ve had some fantastic feedback from the agents that have been on board and it’s a great learning experience for us as well; we learn a lot from the agents, about what they like about the product and what surprises them and we can take that away and think about how we can communicate more with the travel trade community.”
He added: “We’re really focused on 2024 now and making that a real launch year for us in terms of sales. Sycamore and our investors have big ambitions for the brand and the business.”