Carnival hosted some of its top-selling agents at an event on Carnival Breeze in Miami. HOLLIE-RAE MERRICK reports
CAPACITY:CAN YIELDS INCREASEBY NOT SAILING FULL?
Carnival Cruise Lines is experimenting to see whether yields can be increased by not sailing full all the time. Andrew Pickering, cruise supplier relations manager at Thomas Cook, questioned whether Carnival had considered reducing capacity to increase yields and margins. Lynn Torrent, executive
vice-president of sales and guest services, said the line was experimenting with capacity and she was aware some luxury lines had also been “dabbling in not filling their ships”. “We have tried to hold pricing when we get to a certain point, particularly in light of our brand recovery, so [not filling] is new for us,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it was a
strategy, but it is something we are trying. It looks like it probably worked in the first quarter, but it’s minimal and we are in uncharted territory.”
Carnival’s Iain Baillie (right) with agents on Carnival Breeze
Europe withdrawal: Carnival lauds agents for Caribbean switch-selling
Carnival Cruise Lines praised travel agents for switch-selling customers to the Caribbean in the wake of the line’s decision not to sail in Europe this year. Speaking at a VIP agent
round-table event in Miami, Adolfo Perez, UK managing director, thanked agents for keeping Carnival at the forefront of customers’ minds and for switch-selling them from European sailings to the Caribbean. The US line last year operated
two ships in Europe – one sailing from Dover, the other from Barcelona and Venice – but pulled out this year amid fears that rising air fares would deter US customers from flying across the Atlantic. Perez said: “We were surprised
because we knew the Caribbean was strong for us, even in Europe and the UK, but we didn’t think it would be as strong as it has been, and agents have really delivered for us.” Iain Baillie, head of sales for UK
and Ireland, said UK business was 36% up year on year when the Europe sailings from last year were taken out of the equation. He said: “We weren’t as heavily
reliant on Europe as people thought: 40% of our business would have been bookings for
14 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 1 May 2014
president of sales and guest services, said the line’s bosses were watching the moves being made by other international brands. “We don’t know – we’re
Perez was surprised at popularity of Caribbean
European cruises and we’ve made that up.
The
“When we look at the figures now and take Europe out we are actually 36% up year on year (December 2012 to November 2013). “When you put the Europe stats back in, we are nearly flat and that is credit to the agents, they have done that for us.” When asked by agents whether the line would consider putting ships back in Europe next year, Lynn Torrent, executive vice-
watching. It was a hard decision to not go back,” she said. “But when we looked at where customers came from they were still primarily from the US. The flights were getting so expensive relative to the cruise and we were very concerned about filling the ship. “We are
Caribbean will always be our
bread and butter… we do very well with it
still watching what the international brands do. We will probably be last in that game because we are so small internationally. “We will always have a
strong Caribbean presence – the Caribbean will always be our bread and butter, no matter what international moves we make. We do very well with that product and we are very focused on it. “We are optimising the
Caribbean and then we are looking opportunistically at other places in the world.”
SPECIAL REPORT
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