The Interview


Bud Darr, Clia


Clia’s new global president shared his hopes for the association and wider cruise sector in a webcast with T


ravel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley. Ella Sagar reports C


lia’s new global president and chief executive has set out his aim to make


the association and wider industry “more unified”. In his first interview since taking


the helm, Charles ‘Bud’ Darr also spoke about how he plans to draw on his maritime experience to help the sector become more sustainable as he expressed his confidence it can reach net zero by 2050. He acknowledged he is not a


familiar name among the trade but shared his ambition to build “an even greater sense of community” between Clia and travel agents, with the hope of “succeeding together”. Darr rejoined Clia from MSC


Group to succeed Kelly Craighead in February, having previously held the role of senior vice-president of technical and regulatory affairs from 2010 to 2017.


Darr on . . . his career I’ve been a maritime guy ever since I broke away from my native roots in Nebraska. I worked in boatyards as a teenager and then I joined the Navy at 17 – my mum had to sign


12 13 MARCH 2025


my contract because I was too young to sign it myself. I started in nuclear engineering and submarines and then became a marine deck officer. I’ve also been a competitive ocean-racing sailor. This naturally led to my career in the US Coast Guard, before I joined Clia for seven years (see box). Now I’m back, I hope to use


my experience from the maritime industry to help develop the way forward, particularly on decarbonisation and other sustainable ways to run a responsible business.


Darr on . . . unifying the cruise industry I’m not going to completely reorganise the association, but we are going to evolve. I want Clia to be more unified as


an organisation and to extend that to the overall cruise community. I want to bring together, in a geographic and business sense, vendors, ports, destinations, shipbuilders, cruise lines, service providers and agents to form one big community. It’s a big challenge and I think


it’s very important because it’s a truly global industry which, as a community, can be more powerful than the sum of its parts.


Darr on . . . eco goals One of the biggest challenges is that we don’t design, create, produce or deliver fuels. To be successful, we will have to get access to the new generations of fuels to use them on ships in the future. Keep in mind we don’t know


exactly what the lifespan of a modern cruise ship is. Before the pandemic, the average ship that went to recycling was over 40 years old, so the ships launching today are expected to be in service well beyond 2050. For cruise in the longer term,


methanol and methane in their advanced forms are the two most likely fuel paths. Those would be bio or synthetic, relying on green hydrogen which doesn’t exist yet, so there are a lot of steps to make to get there. In the shorter term, we have some biofuels that we can use.


My job is to help make sure the


policymakers and energy providers are aware of the demand from the cruise sector. This is going to be the biggest factor in whether we make it [to net zero by 2050] or not. They need to help make the fuels available in sufficient volumes, because we’re prepared to be the early adopters. I believe we can and will get


there, and I’m seeing an incredibly high level of commitment from the cruise sector to make it happen.


Darr on . . . overtourism For the business to make sense in the longer term, we have to do it in a way where it’s managed more cooperatively with the community, so it welcomes it and sees the benefit in it. It’s in everybody’s interest to


do that, and there have been plenty of examples where we have come


I want to bring together, in a geographic and business sense, vendors, ports, destinations, shipbuilders, cruise lines, service providers and agents to form one big community


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