The new Carnival Corp president believes some brands that make up the world’s largest cruise company “deserve more” money for what they offer.
Speaking during a Travel Weekly webcast, Josh Weinstein said there were “tens of percent different” between cruises and land-based alternatives in terms of value for money.
He said: “People don’t necessarily do the maths very effectively by themselves, especially if they’ve never cruised before because they don’t really get it.
“If you think about customers, and what they are looking when inflation is what it is, we offer tremendous value.”
He added: “I think I can speak for P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises in the UK, we deserve more for what they offer.”
Weinstein hinted that he wanted Carnival brands to earn more per customer booking.
He said picking a cruise over a land holiday was a “no-brainer” and said cruise lines needed to get satisfied customers discussing their experiences with friends and family to help further boost bookings.
The experience Carnival brands offered was “second to none”, said Weinstein, adding he was “very confident” about the future with several ships coming online.
Weinstein also outlined how a long-term goal for him was to improve each Carnival line’s brand positioning.
This would give brands “more clarity” about who they were trying to appeal to, how they speak to that market, the barriers to cruising for those particular people and how to develop effective marketing campaigns.
He said the trade would then be “armed” with the “right set of messaging and tools” by Carnival brands. “I think that’s a huge opportunity,” he said.
Weinstein highlighted how MedallionClass technology helps differentiate Princess from other Carnival brands.
MedallionClass allows swifter embarkation, Wi-Fi, onboard navigation, cabin entry and for food and drinks to be ordered and delivered on Princess’ fleet.
“More differentiation is exactly what we need,” he said. “There’s certainly no central mandate for everybody in the portfolio to follow the same suit.”
He added: “We’ve been pretty fantastic over the last couple of years when it comes to thinking about us as a portfolio of nine brands and working collaboratively in ways we’ve never had to before in making sure we’re sharing best practices and learnings.”