NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Ship launch: Tui hosted nearly 700 agents at the launch of Marella Explorer. Harry Kemble and Lucy Huxley joined them on a sailing from Palma to Barcelona
Star guest Craig David
Marella plans a new-build but expects to wait till 2025
Tui would like to add a new-build ship to the Marella Cruises fleet but said it would be unlikely to do so before 2025 because shipyards are full.
Speaking on board Marella
Explorer at the ship’s launch, Tui Group chief executive Fritz Joussen said: “We are thinking about it. A new-build could be attractive for the UK market, but it’s hypothetical really because there’s no availability in the yards to build one. “Unless we can somehow trade
He said Marella would seek
“A new-build could be attractive for the UK market, but shipyards have no availability”
a slot with someone, the likelihood of us being able to build a new ship for Marella in the next five years is not very high. Even if I ordered it today, it’s almost impossible to get it before 2023. So it would be more like 2025.”
good public space ratios with any new-build. “The size of the ship isn’t the important thing,” Joussen added. “It’s how much public space you have per customer. “It’s no good having too many cabins and then too little public space as that doesn’t create the spaciousness of the kind of quality product we want in the market.” Joussen said he would upgrade
the Marella fleet with second-hand ships that offered a higher-quality product, such as more balconies, to meet customer demand. “You need to make sure guests get used to a premium offering,”
he said. Marella Explorer 2 will be
JOUSSEN: ‘The important thing is how much public space you have per customer’
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travelweekly.co.uk 24 May 2018
delivered next year, increasing the line’s fleet to seven ships. The vessel is currently sailing in China as SkySea Golden Era. Marella managing director
Chris Hackney echoed Joussen’s thoughts. He said: “I think the shipyard availability is probably limited. For us it is about looking at what other options are out there.”
‘I think it is awful that Britain is leaving the EU’
Britain’s exit from the EU won’t change much in the short term, but “nationalism of this kind won’t bring peace to the world in the long term”, according to Tui Group’s boss. Fritz Joussen said: “As a
European, I think it is awful that Britain is leaving Europe. Standing together is somehow important. Think about all the values and the similarities we have in Europe. So we should stand together to create a single model. “But it’s not just economic.
It’s about openness. My children can go anywhere. They think Brexit is madness. “The younger generation
feel European but Britain leaving has brought the rest of Europe closer together.” Joussen added: “The British
have voted to leave so we have to respect it. Now the question is how they do it. “A philosopher in Germany said that when Britain voted for Brexit, they didn’t vote for the exit of Europe but for the exit of reality, because how do you actually do it in the short term?”
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