The president of P&O Cruises has said the line is a “tighter, closer, stronger and more fearless organisation” as he thanked customers and agent partners for their support during the pandemic.
Writing in an opinion column for Travel Weekly, Paul Ludlow outlined P&O’s approach to direct communications over the past two years and said each of his regular video messages on social media had resulted in “increased engagement and positive sentiment” from guest and agents.
Ludlow said it was important at the start of the pandemic for the sector’s market leader to “have a trusted voice and for the messages and news to come from one clear internal source”, with the approach continuing during the shutdown and gradual reopening of the sector.
He also said “honesty, transparency and authenticity” had underpinned all internal and external communication.
“Every organisation and corporate manual says this but we held ourselves to account on this and we saw the rewards when guests appreciated that we maintained a regular and direct presence when we had less than positive news to tell,” he said.
“Putting up the most senior face from the business to create trust and, more importantly, maintaining this as we go back to business as usual will be key to sustaining confidence and loyalty from guests, agents and our people.”
Ludlow said P&O was now recruiting across a range of departments as its full fleet returned to service and believes the line’s commitment to good communication was set to pay dividends.
“Business as usual, whatever that looks like, cannot come soon enough,” he said. “We have all learnt valuable lessons over the past two years, both personally and professionally.
“Despite the sadness, the grief and the hardship, for P&O Cruises we have emerged as a tighter, closer, stronger and more fearless organisation.
“We appreciate even more the talent within the business and we are so very grateful to our travel agent partners who have stuck by us and supported us throughout and which we will certainly never take for granted.”