to go into [places like] Rome and Venice every day.” Bayley revealed Perfect Day at
CocoCay, the name of the island attraction in the Bahamas, had been a $250 million investment. By 2020, Royal Caribbean
expects to take two million passengers to Perfect Day locations around the world.
Overtourism
Bayley called on the cruise sector to engage with destinations which had looked to curb overtourism by taxing cruise passengers. He said: “It is a concern. There
has to be dialogue between the different communities. “Sometimes these decisions are made outside the cruise industry – the attitude is ‘the ship floats, go somewhere else’.” Bayley issued a warning to des- tinations weighing up whether to introduce a passenger tax. He cited the example of
Alaska, which suffered after lines including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line and Regent Seven Seas Cruises reduced capacity in the US state after a head tax was introduced. “At some point you can
tax too much, as Alaska did
years ago,” he said. “We tried to absorb the taxes, but we couldn’t – so we started to move capacity out of Alaska. All of a sudden the [Alaska] community asked ‘what happened?’” Bayley’s colleague Gavin Smith,
Royal’s senior vice-president of international, admitted cruise lines were seen as “an easy target” by authorities despite typically accounting for small percentages of overall visitor numbers. Smith picked out MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises for the way the lines were working with Dubrovnik’s authorities to stagger arrival times and shore excursions. “There are discussions going
on all over Europe and we, as the biggest operator, are at the forefront of them,” he added. Royal Caribbean has invested in ports around the world to ease overtourism concerns. Bayley said: “We build our
own infrastructure at ports that are important to us. We have our own operations in New York, and we are soon to be announcing something in Barcelona.” In December, Royal Caribbean
revealed plans to build a $100 million cruise terminal in Galveston, Texas.
A consortium comprising
Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruise Line, NCL and Disney Cruise Line submitted a bid to the Bahamas government to redevelop the Port of Nassau. Bayley said: “Nassau needs some development. We are in the bidding process and will find out by February.”
Trade rapport
Royal Caribbean scooped the Best Trade-Friendly Brand award at Travel Weekly’s 2019 Globe Travel Awards last month. The line promptly decided to thank agents
by hiking commission by three percentage points for 13 days. Shortly before, Bayley had
said: “We understand that our relationship with travel agents is a primary reason for our success as a cruise line. We are very loyal to our trade partners and we have never wavered from that philosophy in our 50-year history.” Bayley stressed that all Royal Caribbean’s distribution channels should be “fully optimised and as
efficient as possible”. › Bayley attends Travel Weekly Executive Lunch, page 16
Bayley: ‘The UK is a cornerstone of our business’
Royal Caribbean will open its
Perfect Day at CocoCay private island in the Bahamas in May
7 February 2019
travelweekly.co.uk 15
PICTURE: PHIL GAMMON
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