NEWS — SPECIAL REPORT
Norwegian Cruise Line launched its latest ship Norwegian Getaway in Southampton last week with agents and customers on board. HOLLIE-RAE MERRICK reports
Norwegian Cruise Line is expecting a surge in bookings following the launch of its newest ship Norwegian Getaway. The 3,969-berth vessel was
welcomed into Southampton last week by 1,000 agents and 2,500 of their customers. Francis Riley, vice-president and
general manager international, said the line’s sales were already up 15% year on year in the UK, and he expected that to continue with the focus on the new ship. The cruise line is expecting the Miami-based ship to be a hit with the UK market, and potentially even more popular than Norwegian Breakaway, which sails out of New York. It is the first time the line has had a ship based in Miami year-round for 10 years.
Great expectations Getaway was first launched to the Scandinavian and European markets, and Riley said Norwegian had seen a “big surge in bookings” from those markets, something he expected to be repeated in the UK. Nick Wilkinson, director of business development for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, added: “That lift has already started in the UK because of the amount of activity from our travel partners.” Ian Warren, of GoCruise, was one of five agents who won a Travel Weekly competition to host 10 customers on board.
“It was a great
opportunity for me to get to know my customers better,” he said. “I took customers who were new to Norwegian, and some of them had only done smaller ships before. I have had some great feedback from it. “I’d like to think they might book in the future.”
Another winner, Donna Hunt, of
The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors, said: “I hope to see some bookings off the back of it. “My customers said it had opened their eyes because they hadn’t thought to cruise with Norwegian before.” During the inaugural
celebrations, the cruise line revealed the revamp and merger of its trade partner and training websites, and said popular Irish- themed pub O’Sheehans would be introduced across the fleet. When asked whether the line had considered a return to the ex-UK market, Andy Stuart, executive vice-president, said the focus was currently on fly-cruise. He said: “We have been in the ex- UK market, but at the moment we are focusing on fly-cruise and there has been tremendous demand.” Kevin Sheehan, chief executive and president of Norwegian Cruise
14 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 23 January 2014
Line, said the company was still growing and that he didn’t
have enough ships to make any
risky deployments, but added that its
commitment to Europe was greater than ever with Norwegian Epic set to make Barcelona its home port year-round from 2015. He said the line would be spending a lot of money on marketing in northern Europe to raise awareness of the product.
Success based on agents Sheehan questioned why agents worked with the brand before he came to the helm in 2008. “I look back and I wonder why
travel agents ever wanted to work with us,” he said. “Why would they have done business with us when we didn’t have the right technology? We moved our ships every six months and no one knew where we were; we didn’t provide good marketing materials; and if you could figure out how to book with us, we never paid you. How could we have treated agents like that?” Sheehan said addressing those issues had been a priority when he joined. “The absolute success of our business is based on our agents. If you have all these loyal
Norwegian Getaway will be based in Miami. Inset: competition winners
agents you have much more octane fuel to drive the business. It took me a while to understand that because I came from an outside industry. I completely understand and embrace it now.” He said it was important to get
more agents to experience The Haven by Norwegian private area, suitable for luxury travellers. He said bookings for The Haven were driven by word of mouth and that the line wasn’t approaching high-end agents enough. Getaway will increase the
line’s capacity in the Caribbean by almost 50%, and Riley said between 2012 and 2017 its capacity would grow by 60%. “It means agents become
even more important to us than ever,” he said.
Getaway in numbers
18 decks 3,969 passengers 1,508 outside cabins 506 inside cabins 1,640 crew 815 seats in the theatre 28 dining options
42 suites inside The Haven by Norwegian
59 studio rooms
SPECIAL REPORT
Norwegian hopes for booking surge
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