Royal Caribbean’s EMEA vice-president Gerard Nolan said it “made a lot of sense” for the line to introduce refundable deposits to the UK and Ireland market.
Speaking at the Clia Cruise Forum where he was responding to questions about the new deposit option, Nolan said: “It’s been in play in the UK and Ireland for a week so far, so we’ll let the data lead our decisions.
“In other markets where we operate the programme, the actual cancellation rates are very similar between the non-refundable and refundable deposits, so the data gives us confidence that we should see something similar in the UK and Ireland.”
When pushed on whether he understood why some agents were worried about higher cancellation rates, he said: “Change is always something that does bring a bit of nervousness, but let’s run the experience and see where we land.
“The nervousness is fair. However, we’ve got confidence from the other markets where it is in play and has been for a long time that the nervousness will play out.”
Nolan highlighted that the refundable deposit option has been “extremely successful” in other markets, including the US.
He said the line had spent time prior to the roll-out last week to get feedback from the agent community which he described as “generally good and strong”.
Nolan added: “A lot of the research post-pandemic is about giving the customers choice and flexibility, which we wanted to do, and it made a lot of sense for us to consider refundable deposits for the UK and Ireland.”