Holland America Line president Gus Antorcha has told agents he believes the UK market has more to give as he pledged to make it as straightforward as possible for the trade to make bookings.
Speaking at the line’s 150th anniversary celebrations in Rotterdam, Antorcha said the UK “could be doing better”, with other Carnival Corporation lines reporting stronger comparative sales with 2019 than HAL.
But he added: “Whatever you need, talk to the team and we will make it happen.”
Nico Bleichrodt, vice president of international sales, said he was confident delays in the launch of air programmes last year would not be repeated, while Antorcha said HAL hoped to reach sufficient volumes to block-book seats as other lines could, adding: “Everybody is worried about air this year, not just the cost, but availability of seats too. But we will work through this.”
Antorcha also revealed HAL was “looking at pricing” for longer voyages, including options to bring down costs for its ‘Have it all with HAL’ all-inclusive offering if the full allowance wasn’t required by guests.
He also said the line would assess the “exciting stuff” of new-build ships and expansion following a two to three-year period of post-pandemic recovery and debt reduction.
The line reduced its fleet in recent years with the sale of four smaller ships, and currently has no orders for new vessels.
Addressing agents who had joined a sailing from Dover to Rotterdam, he also discussed an ongoing focus on technology and sustainability, with an eventual target among the Carnival Corporation of a ship with “zero discharges”.
“We see an acceleration of the technology that we use to minimise the carbon footprint of the ships,” he said.
“The Carnival Corporation already does a lot but you’re going to see even more. None of the tech currently envisaged a ship that has zero discharges but we’re pushing really hard for that now.”
Antorcha and Bleichrodt were joined in Rotterdam by UK sales and marketing director Karen Farndell, who hosted a further 40 agents in Plymouth and 40 in Dover ahead of the celebrations.
Farndell revealed a total of 450 agents will visit HAL’s ships as they call into UK ports this year and will also host a record 50 agents on cruises to Alaska.
She added: “We’re market leaders to Alaska. 50% of what we book in the UK is for Alaska, and 94% of those guests are new to HAL.
“It’s really important to us, but we also have a fantastic fly-cruise programme all over the world. We want to be known as destination leaders – leaning into our heritage as the pioneers of cruising.”