The Interview


Richard Fain Royal Caribbean Cruises


Cruise will go through a transition period before it ‘rebuilds to where it was’, Royal’s chairman and chief executive tells Lucy Huxley


T


he whole travel industry has been “wounded” by the Covid-19 pandemic,


but Richard Fain believes memories are short and that, DƏWHU PRQWKV RI LVRODWLRQ holidays will become more valuable than ever. “It will take us a while to rebuild


back to where we were. But that is what our industry does,” says Fain, chairman and chief executive of Royal Caribbean Cruises. “There’s a reason this is the largest


and most important industry in the world today and that’s because people need it. In the aftermath of Covid-19, the chance to be with other people, to have new experiences, will actually be more valuable than it was.” He acknowledges the sector will


have to adapt but says cruising has been adapting and changing for years. “Cruising last year was not like


it was 10 years ago. Cruising keeps changing every day; we keep learning.” Fain says anyone suggesting


people will stop travelling or be deterred are “wrong”. “Take 9/11. It really epitomises


12 28 MAY 2020


why I think people are overreacting and why people misunderstand the implications of this,” he says. “After 9/11, people were saying


we would never travel again, or that travel would be so different that people wouldn’t want to. Both of those extremes are wrong. “We will do things differently. It’s


clear there’ll be more sanitation and hygiene controls. It’s clear there’ll be more touchless work with our Excalibur computer programmes. And it’s clear there’ll be more screening. But we will accommodate that.”


Transition period Fain says any changes required at first might not need to be permanent. “There will be a lot that will be a


lot different, but it’ll be one thing the day we start up and something else a month later, and something else a month after that.” Likening the situation to


restaurants, he says: “Some are starting with low levels of capacity so they can social distance. Then, as they prove that works, they’ll reduce the social distancing. Before long, these restaurants will be back to the way they were before.


“With cruise there’ll be a transition


period too but the fundamental experience – the things people like about it – will still be there, and that’s what makes it attractive.”


&RQILGHQFH LQ FUXLVH Fain says people have short memories so will not be put off cruising in the long term as a result of the negative press it faced at the start of the crisis, but admits the sector has work to do. “The important thing isn’t the


past; the important thing is what we do going forward,” he says, adding that appealing to new-to-cruise customers would be harder now than before the outbreak. “The people with experience


in cruising understand what the environment’s like. Their attitude towards cruising is fundamentally different than the attitude of people


who have never taken a cruise. The more people know about cruise and about how we operate a cruise, the more likely they are to come back. “It’s always been harder to convince


somebody who’s never taken a cruise to try one for the first time, and there’s no question it will be harder now than before. But that’s our job. And that’s our travel agents’ job,” says Fain. “The travel agent is so important


in this because nobody buys a cruise because they saw one of our ads. Our marketing directors are going to be angry at me for saying that, but nobody buys a cruise because they saw an ad and says, ‘Oh my god, I’m convinced!’ “They buy a cruise either based


on their own experience, or because somebody they trust advised them – and the person that’s going to do that is most likely today to be


There’ll be a transition period for cruise but the fundamental things people like about it will still be there, and that’s what makes it attractive


travelweekly.co.uk


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