The UK market is leading way for the cruise sector’s recovery from the Covid crisis, according to one of the bosses at Norwegian Cruise Line.
Eamonn Ferrin, vice-president of international business at NCL, said British cruisers were returning more quickly than their overseas counterparts thanks to the speed of the UK vaccination programme and the relaxation of travel rules.
He told a Travel Weekly webcast: “Some of the policy changes the government have made of late have certainly spurred on that huge pent-up demand, for cruising in the UK.
“We’re seeing very strong levels coming in the UK market, closely followed by some of the European markets, which again, have bounced back quite strongly.
“Other parts of the world are more challenging…because they might be much less behind the terms of vaccination rollout or under government policies that are a lot tighter which makes the demand curve a little bit lower.
“It’s definitely bouncing back quickly across the world. Every month is better than last month.”
He said travel agents will “always be a key to our success”, especially as NCL is preparing to add six new ships over the next five years.
The first vessel, Prima, launches from Southampton in August, to be followed by Viva in 2023.
“We need our travel partners more than ever,” he said.
“We never stepped back [during the pandemic]. We’ve always been advertising, we’ve always been there for them.
“We didn’t make any redundancies in terms of our sales team.”
He said the continuing support for agents and paying refunds to clients “has paid great dividends”.
Agents can learn about the new Prima-class ships and the rest of NCL’s fleet with the NCL University – and many will get to see the ships for themselves, he added.
He is visiting Prima in its Italian shipyard of Fincantieri this week along with trade partners, and agents will also be onboard when the ship launches.
“Getting agents on board is very close to my heart. We want to offer the opportunity,” he said.
Ferrin added the NCL Freestyle rewards programme in the UK has been successful – and agents who sell the most will be the ones invited on inaugural sailings.
Last month it unveiled a new tier system to mark the first anniversary since its launch, with silver, gold, platinum, sapphire and ambassador levels.
He said the cruise line will soon announce new ports of call to replace sailings affected by the cancellation of visits to St Petersburg, which were axed after Russia invaded Ukraine.
“Our hearts and thoughts go to everyone in Ukraine who’s facing this. None of us thought it would ever happen,” he commented.
“It’s a terrible tragedy and we hope it ends as soon as possible.
“Hopefully, within the next few days, we’ll announce what we are doing to replace those itineraries.”
He said it was “early days” but demand has not yet been affected.
“Mediterranean bookings are coming in fine. We haven’t seen a material impact,” he told the webcast.
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