NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW 4


NCL: Opportunity to hire Ferrin too good to ignore


Lucy Huxley lucy.huxley@travelweekly.co.uk


oreian ruise ine said it could not pass up the opportunity to bring an plus, superexperienced leader of aonn errins calibre into the oranisation.


Industry stalwart Ferrin


was this week appointed vice- president and managing director for s , reland, srael, outh Africa and Middle East markets. revious  vicepresident and managing director Nick Wilkinson


moved into the new role of regional vice-president of business development, reporting to Ferrin. International president Harry Sommer told Travel Weekly: “This was less about Nick and more about Eammon. We are happy with ic. e is r . e nos all the partners, the product and is so passionate about the brand.” Sommer said Brexit and the economy had left the  maret “a little unsettled”, adding: “The opportunity to have someone of Eamonn’s calibre and experience join us was too good to ignore.” He said international markets


lie the  and reland ere to become increasingly important ith s capacity to increase y 50% with Norwegian Encore, due to launch in November, and six eonardoclass ships on the ay, taing its fleet to  ships. But Sommer ruled out more ex-


 capacity. e ant ritish guests to get on a plane to openhagen, Barcelona or Amsterdam,” he said. Ferrin said: “We are going to


need to gro significantly so its a case of growing all our markets.”


5 STORIES HOT


Eammon Ferrin is taking the helm at NCL across the UK and several other markets


Ferrin has previously held


senior industry roles in the airline, tour operator, cruise and hotel sectors including at Holidaybreak, MyTravel and Airtours. He was most recently interim chief operating officer at ruise.co.u


for a year from late 2017. ● parent oregian ruise ine oldings ordered to ships for sister line ceania ruises this week. The 1,200-passenger new-class ships are slated for delivery in 2022 and 2025.


5 Sales slow after Sunday Times story


Ian Taylor ian.taylor@travelweekly.co.uk


Industry concerns about media stories of Brexit “chaos” appear ustified after analyst f confired prehristas booins fell folloin a report in The Sunday Times.


The newspaper’s front page on December 16 reported: “No-deal Brexit travel warning: don’t go on


holiday after March 29.” The Sunday Times suggested government contingency plans


for a no-deal Brexit would include advice “not to book holidays after arch and reported officials had “war-gamed the impact” amid fears “it might bankrupt” tour operators. f confirmed this ee that summer 2019 bookings plunged in the fortnight following the story. Senior client insight director


David Hope told Travel Weekly: “Summer 2019 bookings were down 17% year on year in the week after The Sunday Times article, and about 19% down the following week.” Sunvil chairman Noel


6travelweekly.co.uk10 January 2019


“Summer 2019 sales were down 17% year on year in the week after the article”


Josephides said: “There has been


no zip to the market since The Sunday Times article.” Fortunately, December is the


slowest booking month of the year. Hope said: “These were small [booking] weeks, which exaggerates the performance.” At the same time the trade


went into December off the back of strong trading, despite the uncertainty around Brexit. GfK reported summer 2019 bookings up 10% year on year to the end of November and revenue up 11% following a 5% increase in summer 2018 bookings on 2017. The current winter season also


appeared healthy, with season-to- date bookings up 6% to the end of November. Two-thirds of winter capacity and more than a quarter of summer 2019 were booked ahead of the article’s publication.


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