Allure's full European season a response to strong UK demand

The world's largest cruise ship will spend a full season in Europe for the first time in 2015, with strong UK demand to thank.

Following a year in which many cruise companies reduced their European activities, the news that Royal Caribbean will sail Allure of the Seas from in Florida - where it sails alongside its sister ship Oasis of the Seas on primarily Caribbean focused voyages - to Europe is welcome indeed.

Having carried more than two million passengers on Caribbean cruises since its introduction in 2010, the vessel will return for the first time to the continent where it was constructed and will sail from the Spanish port of Barcelona between May and October 2015.

This will follow on the rudder of Oasis of the Seas' mini-Mediterranean season, which is scheduled for autumn of this year.

Once it has arrived in Barcelona, Allure of the Seas will offer UK and European passengers a chance to enjoy seven-night cruises calling at Palma de Mallorca, Marseilles, La Spezia (for Florence and Pisa), Civitavecchia (for Rome) and Naples.

According to Dominic Paul, head of Royal Caribbean International sales outside of North America, bringing Allure of the Seas to Europe is a "bold move", but the cruise line is confident of success.

Speaking to Seatrade Insider, he explained that this confidence comes not only from the merit of its Oasis-class ships, but also in the strength of the UK cruise market and prospects for growth here.

Next year is looking exciting indeed, with Royal Caribbean also planning to home port its new vessel Anthem of the Seas in Southampton once construction has been completed.

Stuart Leven, the Royal Caribbean's managing director for UK and Ireland, added: "The company is showing a big commitment to the UK market in 2015.

He added: "I believe the combination of an Oasis-class ship with all its on-board options and the great cruise destination of the Mediterranean will be a very compelling argument for both those who haven't cruised before and also cruisers who have never experienced Oasis."

ACL newbuilds to ply Mississippi, Pacific Northwest rivers

By Michelle Baran

American Cruise Lines (ACL) will place the first two if its four upcoming new riverboats on the Mississippi River and on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The company announced in December that it would introduce four new vessels for U.S. river cruising between 2015 and 2017.

Construction has begun on the two riverboats at the Chesapeake Shipbuilding yard in Salisbury, Md. They will join ACL’s existing vessels on the Mississippi and Columbia rivers — the 150-passenger Queen of the Mississippi and the 120-passenger Queen of the West.

The new Mississippi riverboat will have a similar capacity to that of the Queen of the Mississippi and will enter service in March 2015. The new Columbia riverboat will be launched later in 2015 with a planned capacity of 175 passengers. Both will feature functioning paddlewheels.

“Demand on the Mississippi is high, and the Columbia River has not seen a new riverboat in many years,” Timothy Beebe, vice president of American Cruise Lines, said in a statement.

Both riverboats will feature historic accents and large staterooms with sliding glass doors offering passengers views from private balconies. A glass-enclosed dining room and various public lounge venues are planned.

ACL has not revealed names for the ships yet.

No vacancies? River ships offer to pick up the slack

By Michelle Baran

 Hotel room availability an issue? Try a river cruise! That’s the marketing approach some river cruise companies are taking in places like Brazil and Myanmar where demand is outpacing hotel capacity.

For the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil this summer, Amazon River cruise specialist Rainforest Cruises has introduced five-day Manaus World Cup Amazon cruises to correspond with the World Cup matches taking place in the Amazonian city of Manaus. For $1,999 per person, based on double occupancy, passengers will cruise onboard the 24-passenger Iracema, which launched in March 2011, or the 24-passenger Victoria Amazonica, which launched in 2000.

There will be four World Cup soccer matches played in Manaus — including USA vs. Portugal on June 22 — which has a new, 42,618-seat stadium to accommodate the fans. 

“With that in mind and with excitement building, hotels in Manaus are likely to book up far in advance,” Rainforest Cruises told travelers in a recent release promoting its World Cup cruises.

The Rainforest Cruises World Cup itineraries are designed so that the vessels will be docked in town during the matches and sailing through the Brazilian Amazon the remaining days.

It’s not the first time a river cruise line has offered up its available capacity, however big or small, to alleviate a capacity crunch on land. There’s a similar situation taking place in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), where river cruise companies are racing to build overnight passenger vessels that can serve as an alternative to a hotel infrastructure that isn’t ready for the country’s massive increase in tourists.

Consequently, Haimark Ltd. is introducing a 56-passenger river cruise vessel in Myanmar this September; Pandaw River Expeditions will launch two additional 40-passenger river cruise vessels in Myanmar this July; Sanctuary Retreats will launch the 48-passenger Sanctuary Ananda in Myanmar later this year; and AmaWaterways is launching the 56-passenger AmaPura there this year, as well.

And thus, a hotel capacity challenge becomes a river cruise opportunity.

Allure of the Seas to be based in Europe for first time

By Hollie-Rae Merrick 

The world’s biggest cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, will be based in Europe for the first time next year as Royal Caribbean International targets new customers.

The cruise line said support from the UK trade had been a key factor in the decision.

UK managing director Stuart Leven said agents would have an opportunity to sell “a unique and innovative ship”, perfect for the family market, when the 6,318-berth Allure, which launched in 2010, starts sailings from Barcelona on May 3, 2015.

He said: “We look at the support from the trade when making these decisions, just as we did when we decided to base Anthem of the Seas in Southampton. We look at the markets that support the brand. The UK has always been supportive of Independence of the Seas out of Southampton and it was an obvious decision to take Allure to the Med and open it to a new customer base.”

Royal Caribbean has produced a mini-brochure about the ship and a marketing toolkit that includes videos, campaign tools and images.

Leven said operating Allure in Europe alongside Anthem of the Seas, which will be based in Southampton when it launches in 2015, demonstrated the line’s commitment to the European market. It will be the first time Allure has sailed outside the Caribbean.

The ship will operate seven-night cruises from Barcelona between May and October 2015, calling at Palma, Marseille, La Spezia and Civitavecchia, where there is the chance to join the ship.

Tallies of 2014 Wave range from ‘normal’ to ‘fantastic’

By Tom Stieghorst

Record month for Carnival

Carnival Cruise Lines said it booked 17% more reservations in January than in the same month in 2013, setting a new single-month record. Read More 

Cruise retailers said last week that sales appeared to be off to a promising start in 2014, following two years of disappointment during the Wave season that ushers in each new year’s bookings.

The only cruise company that has reported earnings so far this year took a more cautious approach. Executives at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) used words like “typical” and “normal” to describe the first month of cruise sales in a conference call with Wall Street analysts last week.

All three of the major cruise companies are publicly traded and can only release sales figures that have been submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

But several travel agents were decidedly upbeat.

“It’s been fantastic for us,” reported Joseph Giampietro, president of Cruise Brothers, a large retailer based in East Providence, R.I.

Matthew Jacob, an analyst at ITG Investment Research, suggested that RCCL might be portraying its bookings conservatively.

“The data we have up until now is probably stronger than what their guidance indicates,” Jacob said. “They are leaving some cushion for softness in close-in bookings.”

But even just a “normal” year might sit well with the industry and agents after two seasons running in which a negative event collapsed the momentum that Wave season is designed to generate.

The most memorable thing about the 2014 Wave season so far is the bone-chilling cold weather that gripped the northern areas of the country after New Year’s and extended into much of the South last week.

The first week of 2014 cruise sales at RCCL was somewhat softer than last year, CFO Jason Liberty said.

“The severity of the weather kept people indoors and clearly resulted in lower bookings for several days,” he said.

Demand was weakest in the Northeast and Midwest but stronger in the warmer markets, he said.

By last week, another front had pushed through the Deep South, badly snarling traffic in Atlanta and other Southern areas.

Adam Goldstein, president of Royal Caribbean International, said the frigid conditions worked in the industry’s favor.

“Obviously, we are continuing to root for cold weather, and we are seeing what is more or less an endless stretch of it,” he told analysts on RCCL’s earnings call.

That could be a stroke of luck for an industry that has emphasized the Caribbean this year. Caribbean capacity, both industrywide and for RCCL, is up 13% over last year, raising questions about how much discounting will be needed to fill all of the ships.

Cruise Brothers’ Giampietro said that at a recent consumer show, many of the cruise sales it booked were for Caribbean sailings in March, April and May. He said that was unusual because in other years inventory that close in would not be available.

“A lot of those ships have redeployed from Europe,” he said. “That’s why you’re seeing that [availability].”

Cruise Brothers’ higher sales are being driven by “price points,” he said. “It’s the best value. It’s within people’s reach, and they realize it now more than ever.”

Most cruise lines are staging promotions during Wave season, featuring low deposits, onboard credits, complimentary beverage packages, reduced airfares and other incentives as well as favorable ticket prices.

Goldstein said that the level of promotions is vigorous but not exceptional.

“I think all of the industry is working very hard to get load on the ships at the desirable rate,” he said.

Giampietro said add-ons like the 123Go! offer from RCCL’s Celebrity Cruises brand make a difference on the margin.

“Does it get the phones ringing? I’m not so sure,” he said. “But it does help to close [the sale], I can tell you that.”

Other agents said cruise inquiries have been steady through January.

“What’s hot is Norway,” said JoAnne Davis, a Cruise Planners franchisee in Coral Springs, Fla.

Davis said demand is strong for river cruises and Europe in general. “And they’re not letting the airfares stop them.”

Air to Europe still costs $1,200 to $1,500 per person, but Davis said her clients have resigned themselves to paying it. She said cruise fares in Europe are also higher, citing a $4,500 price on a 12-night Baltic cruise she recently booked.

ITG’s Jacob said the lines have been pleasantly surprised by demand and pricing in Europe and Asia.

“The cruise industry has taken capacity out, and the supply is more reasonable compared to demand,” he said. “And that has led to better pricing and better booking patterns for Europe than many in the industry were expecting in 2014.”

He said pricing improvement will be a multiyear process that will depend in part on avoiding external shocks, such as the Costa Concordia accident in 2012 and the Carnival Triumph fire in 2013.

“Without those occurring, you probably would have seen some real cruise ticket growth, and maybe I think this year we’ll see some rebound in ticket pricing,” Jacob said.

Cruise executives are keeping their fingers crossed that the outbreak of gastrointestinal illness that prompted Royal Caribbean International to shorten a cruise on the Explorer of the Seas last week won’t become this year’s Wave season spoiler.

More than 20% of the passengers on the Explorer were hit by the outbreak, which was heavily covered by news media when the ship returned to port for “barrier” sanitizing before its next cruise.

In 2006, a similar number of passengers and crew were affected by norovirus on a Carnival Liberty sailing in November. The impact on 2007 bookings isn’t known, but a generally strong economy at the time seemed to be the foundation for a year of higher revenues at both RCCL and Carnival Corp.

Pricing this year remains a key question for both cruise lines and travel agents.

Katrina May, owner of YamaGogo Travel in Apopka, Fla., said she booked a five-night cruise on the Brilliance of the Seas from Tampa recently for $600. “For the close-in sailings, the price has almost been cheap,” she said.

May said cruise lines have been quietly extending promotions that were set to expire at the end of last year.

Though her agency is in Florida, May said the polar vortex that threw much of the country into a deep freeze was helping her sales. May said she’s completed three or four bookings in January for departures as close as two weeks.

“Cold weather has a lot to do with it,” she said.

Upgraded Navigator of the Seas gets 'virtual balconies'

By Tom Stieghorst

Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas is expected to resume cruising on Feb. 5 after a drydock to install Royal Advantage upgrades.

Also, Navigator will be the first Royal Caribbean ship to feature the virtual balconies that are coming later this year to the Quantum of the Seas.

The virtual balconies are nearly floor-to-ceiling projection screens that display external images of the ocean, making it seem like interior cabins have balconies. The balconies even come with projection railings.

A total of 81 cabins have been fitted with the virtual balconies.

Navigator of the Seas is scheduled for a four-day cruise from Galveston, Texas, to Cozumel, returning to Galveston on Feb. 9.

Caribbean Princess cutting cruise short due to fog and illness

Caribbean Princess cutting cruise short due to fog and illness

Princess Cruises has been forced to cut short the current voyage onboard Caribbean Princess because of impending weather forecasts and a suspected outbreak of norovirus.

The vessel is scheduled to return to US waters today, one day earlier than had been intended in the itinerary, because of a heavy build up of dense fog that is expected to descend along the US coast tomorrow and for most of the weekend.

It will also require extra time for sanitisation under the watchful eye of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after passengers reported symptoms of the vomiting bug to the ship's medical bay. According to reports, five passengers are sick with nausea and diarrhoea at present, however some 165 passengers and 11 crew are believed to have fallen ill during the course of the trip.

That represents five per cent of the 3,104 guests aboard Caribbean Princess and less than one per cent of the 1,148 staff members, which is someway short of the eye-watering number of sick reported aboard Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas this week, when more than 20 per cent of the 3,071 passengers reported with symptoms.

However, this represents the third confirmed outbreak of norovirus already this year. Last year by way of comparison, there were nine outbreaks in total. In order to stay on track with its accelerated timeline, the ship, which has been sailing since January 25th, was forced to skip a planned call at the port of Belize.

Princess said in a statement: "Because of the increased sensitivity surrounding Norovirus by both cruise lines and the CDC in this winter season, we notified the CDC who will be boarding on Friday to ensure all appropriate measures are followed for an extensive sanitation of the ship prior to the next cruise."

Passengers will be provided with overnight accommodation in local hotels once the ship arrives in port, as well as a future cruise credit worth 20 per cent of their fare and a one-day allowance to put towards meals and other costs.

Nile cruises suffering despite distance from political turmoil

Nile cruises suffering despite distance from political turmoil

River cruises along the Luxor and Nile in Egypt are being "tarred with the same brush" as Cairo by prospective holidaymakers, despite being as far away from the political turmoil that is currently gripping the capital as the where it is business as usual for the most part.

That is according to Discover Egypt director Philip Breckner, who told Travel Weekly that negative media reports about the state of affairs in Egypt are to blame for the fact that the cruise operator is running trips that are half full, despite the fact that they have been in full swing since the travel ban was lifted in November.

He said that headlines about the violence in Cairo have put many consumers off from the idea of visiting Egypt, leaving them nervous about booking cruises in the region.

This is despite the fact that "luxor and Aswan are just as far away from Cairo as Hurghada and Sharm el-Shekih, if not further". However he added: "They are continuously tarred with the same brush. People think about Luxor in the same way as they do about Cairo.

"But life is going on as normal in upper Egypt and there have been little or hardly any incidents there throughout the troubles, including during the revolution in 2011," Mr Breckner said.

"We had customers coming off a cruise on Monday and staying in Cairo for three days this week. Safety and security are of paramount importance to us."

In order to ensure peace of mind among prospective cruise travellers thinking of booking, Discover Egypt is guaranteeing that its weekly cruise trips will go ahead as planned, even if only a few cabins have been sold.

Egypt has already been an incredibly popular destination among cruise operators and passengers. Would you be confident to visit areas of the country away from Cairo given the political rumblings coming out of the capital?

Hurtigruten touts five-day sale as year's best

By Tom Stieghorst

Hurtigruten, the specialist in Norwegian coastal cruises, is holding a five-day sale with fares on 2014 voyages discounted by up to one-third.

The sale, from Feb. 4-8, will provide the best prices of the year, Hurtigruten said.

In an email to agents, Hurtigruten said best bets for potential passengers on its cruises are past Alaska clients, past European river cruisers and small-ship fans.

Norwegian coastal cruises stop at 34 ports and are available in six-, seven-, 11- and 12-day lengths. Hurtigruten said an example of the savings is a peak season six-day cruise in August that starts at $1,595 per person this week, compared with the standard rate of $2,381.

In addition to cruising along the coast and fjords of Norway, Hurtigruten offers “explorer” cruises to Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica and Spitsbergen.

Carnival says it set single-month booking record

By Tom Stieghorst

Carnival Cruise Lines said it booked 17% more reservations in January than in the same month in 2013, setting a new single-month record for bookings.

More than 565,000 people reserved space on a Carnival cruise in January, the line The Carnival.com website attracted 13 million visits, another all-time high.

Carnival said the increase was achieved without addition of a new ship over the 12-month period.

President Gerry Cahill attributed the upturn to the line’s “Moments that Matter” ad campaign which began in the fall, attractive promotions, product enhancements and recognition of Carnival’s value by consumers.

“We are seeing heavy sales growth in all channels, particularly via our travel agent partners, and we would like to express our tremendous appreciation for their support,” Cahill said.

Cahill said Carnival has continued to roll out its $500 million Fun Ship 2.0 product-enhancement program across the fleet, which includes dining, bar and entertainment upgrades.

In 2014, a total of 11 Carnival ships will feature major Fun Ship 2.0 enhancements.

Getaway looks like older sister, with a different personality

By Arnie Weissmann

ABOARD THE NORWEGIAN GETAWAY — As agents, packagers and media filed aboard the Norwegian Getaway on Monday for its introductory sailing, Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Kevin Sheehan sat in an unmarked conference room and summed up the differences between the ship and its structurally identical older sister, the Breakaway.

“The Breakaway was a very immersive experience, a very New York experience. This is Miami,” he said in an interview with Travel Weekly.

Sheehan cited the ways that each ship reflects its home port. The bows were painted by different native artists (Peter Max for the Breakaway vs. David "Lebo" Le Batard for the Getaway).

Shaker’s Champagne Bar has been replaced by the Sugarcane Mojito Bar, the Uptown Bar and Grill has given way to the Flamingo Bar & Grill, Maltings Whiskey Bar is now the Key West/Hemingway inspired Sunset Bar, the bluesy Fat Cats morphed into the Grammy Experience and, most symbolically, the Manhattan Room has been transformed to the Tropicana Room.

The Burn the Floor dance show remains, but it’s now ballroom dance to a distinctly Latin beat.

The other entertainment offerings don’t carry the Northeast vs. Southeast theme, with Broadway show “Legally Blond” replacing Broadway show “Rock of Ages” in the main theater, and the magic/special effects Illusionarium standing in for the Cirque Dreams in the dinner theater.

That leaves 23 dining options and 18 bars and lounges identical to the Breakaway’s older sibling.

One aspect that certainly will not be changed — and which Sheehan predicts will be widely copied by other cruise lines — is the Waterfront, which provides outdoor seating for many restaurants.

Sheehan said that the some changes were made in the décor and color schemes of the staterooms and suites, but that aside from fixing some “nits and nats,” they are identical to the rooms on the Breakaway.

Pressed for what those nits and nats were, Sheehan, after taking a long pause to think, couldn’t come up with any.

He credits extraordinary attention to detail in the planning and execution of the Breakaway in making the building of the Getaway relatively painless.

“We were literally done [with the Getaway] well before delivery,” he said. “We had said we wanted it completed in mid-December to give us a month of wiggle room, and we didn’t need it. We were in such good shape that the night before there was nothing to do, so we had a cocktail party.”

Sheehan also said that an inclusive, team approach ensures a better product.

“The more people involved, the smarter the ship will be designed, and the better the flow for the whole guest experience,” he said. “These ships are designed to make guests into brand ambassadors. When they get off, they’ll talk about their great experiences.”

Forward bookings are doing well, he said, but admitted they “always could be better.”

“We’re in an environment that has changed since the incidents that affected the industry,” Sheehan said, in a reference to the sinking of the Costa Concordia and fires that disabled Carnival and Royal Caribbean ships. “It might mean an extra promotion or marketing activity, but at the end of the day, you get where you want to be and get the right customers who will fill the ships and receive the right value.”

Plan to revive port of Dover's Western Docks put forward

By Phil Davies 

A plan to revive the Western Docks at the port of Dover is being put forward to create more than 600 jobs and safeguard a further 140.

It would enable the port to ensure that it has the essential infrastructure in place for future years with the additional opportunity to increase ferry berth capacity in the Eastern Docks through the transfer of cargo operations to the west.

The scheme would protect long-term port capacity and enable the transformation of the waterfront with the potential creation of a new marina in what is being described as acting as a “catalyst” for the regeneration of Dover.

But commitment to major investment will need to be supported and enhanced by increasing the port’s ability to fund such a “massive transformation”.

Dover Harbour Board said it had reviewed a master plan for the docks over several months and identified a “significant opportunity” to support its customers and the community and provide “the game changer” for which the people of Dover have been waiting for so long.

The Harbour Board’s vision is described as an evolution of previous proposals and “represents a possible way of achieving key benefits of the plan based upon current market conditions and opportunities within the cargo business”.

The Harbour Board said: “Having successfully achieved government approval in 2012 to develop the Western Docks, the Board wishes to seize the opportunity to lock in the many benefits that this could bring just as soon as it possibly can.”

Dover District Council leader Paul Watkins said: “Delivering major port development that protects long term port capacity but delivers jobs and opportunities now whilst creating a catalyst for major regeneration will be a significant boost to the region and shows real commitment to Dover.”

Dover Harbour Board chairman George Jenkins said: “Transforming this part of the port estate can in turn support the wider transformation agenda, one which sees the port and town working together, which the Port of Dover is also championing through its Dover waterfront regeneration project with Dover District Council.

“The people of Dover have waited long enough for Dover’s revival. That revival could start right now, breathing new life into our port and into our community.”

Diver working on Costa Concordia dies in accident

A diver is reported to have died while working on the shipwrecked Costa Concordia after apparently gashing his leg on an underwater metal sheet.

Italy's civil protection agency, which is leading the removal of the Concordia from the Tuscan coast, said the diver was Spanish.

Tuscany's La Nazione newspaper said the diver had been working on preparations to attach huge tanks on to sides of the Concordia, to float the ship off its false seabed and tow it to a port for eventual dismantling.

The newspaper reported he gashed his leg on an underwater metal sheet and was then unable to get free.

It said he bled heavily before a diver colleague was able to bring him to the surface. He was reportedly conscious upon surfacing but later died, according to Sky News.

He is the first diver to die in the line of work on salvaging the Concordia ever since it hit a reef off the island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew.

The Concordia was righted in preparation for removal during a 19-hour engineering feat last autumn, in which a system of pulleys wrenched 115,000-ton cruise ship from its side to vertical.

Data and its promise of making the travel industry less average

By Travolution

As human beings we tend to take some comfort from the ‘law of averages’.

It gives us some level of assurance that even though many events appear to be random most are at least partially predictable because outcomes usually fall within a pre-definable range.

The problem is that the average is just a statistical entity and doesn’t necessarily exist in reality or guarantee that anything in particular is due to happen.

This is what the Travelport Evolve conference in Monaco was told this week by former Traveltainment boss Andy Owen-Jones.

He told delegates: “Averages lie. If you are marketing to your consumers on the basis of averages there is basically no one who is an average.”

Owen-Jones now runs his own Bid Data company called bd4travel which is taking the conventional practice of AB testing on websites – effectively an averages-based approach - to the next level.

“We try to drill it down so you are not testing averages,” he said. “It’s gone from hypothesis testing to now so that with artificial intelligence you can try lots of different things.”

So the promise of Big Data is much more qualitative than the rather quantitative-sounding buzzword would have you believe.

It opens up the possibility for retailers to create entirely new customer segmentation matrices based on observed behaviours but predicted by massive number crunching.

What a customer doesn’t buy becomes as important as what they end up buying, and deeper insight into that person’s preferences will enables firms to offer a highly personal service.

Or if little is known about the customer – a scenario more likely in leisure travel where transactions are infrequent – learning algorithms can draw on massive amounts of data to predict need.

Owen-Jones illustrated how travel needs to progress to Netflix’s algorithm that pushes relevant content up the search results.

Or, taking things a step further, what about Amazon’s predictive analytics which, apparently, will ship products to customers before they’ve actually been ordered.

“What you want to do is start to identify the behaviours customers exhibit.

“Think about them as patterns buying patterns, identify the patterns that sell to other patterns you can mathematically work out,” said Owen-Jones.

All this takes a huge amount of control of data and, as was pointed out, travel is a sector in which online retailers often don’t even know the attributes of what they are selling until the inquiry is made of the warehouse.

So content becomes vital – content about the product, right through to content about the end consumer and all the factors, events and behaviours in the middle that unite the two.

And this is where a company like Travelport comes in with its vast amount of data generated by the 77 million daily search requests and 1.2 billion results it handles every day.

Reg Warlop, Travelport vice-president of search and transaction processing, said Big Data is opening up this sort of closely managed and targeted marketing so it’s not just the preserve of the big boys.

“We have seen year-on-year increases of 30% in search volume. And it’s not only volume, it’s the complexity and choice.

“Agencies want to sell more content, more ancillary services and they want to trip down those billions of results sets to something that’s more relevant.

“The whole industry has been structured around checking availability, checking schedules, pricing options, doing it multiple times over and over again.

“Large companies have had enormous stores for decades and have been able to crunch the numbers but now for smaller companies it’s accessible.

“It used to be about averages; now it’s every single event you can do something with it. We want to solve those complex problems. It’s not your core business to do that, it’s ours.

“Typically we have more data than any single participant in our network and because we have the search queries we can spot the trends that no one else can spot.”

Increasingly the value of the GDSs will be measured by how they can exploit their position at the centre of the travel industry to do three things:

• Buffer airline technology against the rising demands of the direct and indirect customer base;
• Enable travel agents to become more effective and efficient by targeting their products to more closely match their customers, and;
• Allow the end consumer through which ever channel they choose, to quickly and accurately search and shop on whatever device whenever they want to.

Warlop said Travelport has three main propositions emerging for its industry partners: personalisation, benchmarking and recommendations.

“They all require a lot of data to be processed to establish who the customer is, to determine to which segment this customer belongs.

“We are in a position to marry that up for partners who specialise in segmenting customer for behavioural targeting.

“Travelport is sat on a goldmine of data. We could sell it to financial analysts but we are more interested in applying it to our own transactions.”

Remember, the fundamental concepts behind this aren’t revolutionary.

Ever since Dunnhumby helped Tesco overtake it’s closest rival Sainsbury’s in the 1990s firms have strived to emulate it’s approach to targeted marketing.

The hospitality industry was quick off the block to use insights derived from unstructured Big Data to improve their offering and Warlop said OTAs like Vayama, Expedia and Kayak have started too.

“The momentum is really building up,” he said, “already we are exposing more data, collecting more raw data and making it more available.

“It’s a win win; the consumer will be getting less noise, the agency will be able to offer better service and the airline will be able to sell more.”

A new search platform being developed by Travelport will be based on the principals of Big Data.

While exploiting the data the GDS already has this will rely on agents making sure their customer data is up to date and inputted in the right way.

An open platform and external developer network will also be able to siphon off the data it needs to come up with new products to advance to use of this data.

“It’s about control, brand diversification and options to upsell and cross-sell. These are fundamentally different design principals we are working on,” Warlop said.

“People spend more and more time planning their trips and we need to cater for that consumer behaviour. Why are metasearch sites so often used by consumers?

“Only so much is down to brand and SEO. The other thing a lot of meta sites have developed is an awesome consumer experience, far superior to many OTAs who still look like 2001.”

Frank named Costa Cruises chairman

By Tom Stieghorst

Longtime Carnival Corp. executive Howard Frank was named chairman of Costa Cruises, succeeding Pier Luigi Foschi in the role.

Both Frank and Foschi retired last year from Carnival Corp. positions. Frank had been vice chairman and chief operating officer. Foschi, in addition to chairing Costa was chairman of Carnival Asia.

Carnival said that in his new role, Frank will support Costa CEO Michael Thamm.

When he stepped down, Frank was named to serve as special adviser to the CEO and to the chairman of Carnival Corp.

Frank is also chair of the executive committee of CLIA. 

Crystal to raise prices on most cruises

By Tom Stieghorst

Crystal Cruises said it would raise fares on 94% of its 2014, 2015 and 2016 cruises on March 1, reflecting strong demand.

Under its “Book Now” program, the luxury line assesses its fares every 60 days and raises them on itineraries that are selling sufficiently well to support it.

Crystal said fares would increase on more than 120 cruises for the next “Book Now” period ending April 30.

The line said 2014 is already 78% booked, and 2015 bookings are 42% ahead of this same time last year for 2014. 

Cruise ship returns home with more than 600 sick passengers

By Tom Stieghorst

Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas returned to its home port in Bayonne, N.J., on Wednesday afternoon following a widespread outbreak of gastrointestinal illness on the 3,000-passenger ship.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that 629 passengers, more than 20% of the passengers onboard, were affected by the illness over the course of the cruise. Also, 54 crew members were reported ill.

The last time a cruise ship had as many sick people was in 2006, when 536 passengers and 143 crew members from the Carnival Liberty were reported ill, according to CDC records.

Royal Caribbean shortened the 10-day cruise to eight days to allow for extra sanitation measures before the next cruise on Friday.

"Guests scheduled for the next cruise on Explorer of the Seas can be confident that all possible measures will have been taken to prevent further problems,” a Royal Caribbean statement said.

Royal Caribbean said it plans a thorough sanitizing of the entire ship.

Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said they won't know if it was a outbreak until later this week.

Passengers on the stricken cruise will receive a 50% refund of their cruise fare and a 50% future cruise credit.

Guests who had to be confined to staterooms will be credited with one future cruise day for each day of confinement.

Royal Caribbean said it will also reimburse airline change fees and hotel accommodations for guests whose travel home was inconvenienced by the change of travel plans.

Getaway introduced in New York, but thoughts drift to warm Miami

By Arnie Weissmann

ABOARD THE NORWEGIAN GETAWAY — The frigid January weather in New York has kept most industry guests and media away from the Norwegian Getaway's distinctive outdoor attractions during the ship's inaugural sailing.

Few took advantage of the open-air dining on Waterfront, let alone the ropes course, water park with slides or other top-decks attractions.

The ship is a structural clone of its older sister, the Breakaway, which debuted last year, and having the passengers stay largely indoors kept them focused on the shifting of emphasis from themes of New York, where Breakaway homeports, to Miami, where the Getaway will be based.

“I like the subtle touches of Miami,” said Karen Giantomasi, client services supervisor for the online travel agency Cruise Direct International Voyager. “The mojitos in place of Champagne, Cuban food at the buffet.”

But many travel counselors said the shift in geographic emphasis inside really just supports the biggest change of all — that this ship will soon have a southern point of departure.

Although Wendi Randal of Liberty Travel in Pittsburgh doesn’t have clients in either homeport, the cold weather emphasized to her the importance of having a warm gateway. “You want [clients] to be able to try everything that’s outside, and you don’t want the weather to hinder that.”

One discerning couple didn’t mind at all that, other than the tweaking of restaurant and bar themes, the interiors were virtually identical. Sitting quietly and unnoticed at a side table at Sugarcane Mojito Bar off the atrium was Craig Cannonier, premier of Bermuda, and his wife Antoinette. 

He had been aboard during the inauguration of the Breakaway (which sails to Bermuda), and on this sailing was again in a suite in the Haven, the private area atop the ship which caters to upscale travelers.

“We’ve broken away, we’ve gotten away, next we’ll stay away — stay away from land,” he said. (He said he wasn’t worried about competition for Bermuda from cruising, and believes that port visits ultimately lead to subsequent longer land stays.)

As for the lack of differences — he did notice that “here, you have a mermaid painted on the outside” — he was sanguine. “They took a model that worked and built another. Why do something else? It’s not the same itinerary, so why not build a replica that works and take it to another destination?”

“We’ll bring our family aboard [the Breakaway] on our next vacation, down to our 3-year-old grandchild,” added Antoinette. “They do a good job.”

South Carolina court throws out lawsuit against Carnival

By Jerry Limone

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Carnival Cruise Lines' operations in Charleston violated the city’s nuisance ordinances.

The court ruled that such a lawsuit must be brought by property owners, not neighborhood associations.

In 2011, the Southern Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of four Charleston community groups against Carnival, seeking to "enforce local laws that protect the city's healthy environment and treasured historic assets."

The four community groups were the Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association, the Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, the Preservation Society of Charleston and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.

The court stated, "Lacking from these allegations is any claim that the plaintiffs themselves or their members have suffered from a particularized harm. … These allegations are simply complaints about inconveniences suffered broadly by all persons residing in or passing through the City of Charleston and therefore, plaintiffs fail to establish the first element of standing."

The South Carolina Ports Authority and the City of Charleston joined the lawsuit on Carnival's behalf in 2011.

"This was an unprecedented lawsuit brought against a global brand and customer of our port," said Jim Newsome, president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority. "Given the public interest in this case, we are gratified that the State Supreme Court, in its original jurisdiction, affirms that Carnival has been operating responsibly and lawfully in Charleston at Union Pier Terminal."

The Southern Environmental Law Center said the ruling “did not address whether Carnival’s home basing operation complies with local ordinances, or whether it is a nuisance that interferes with the property rights of neighboring home owners, as the plaintiffs alleged. “

"We’re disappointed that after two years the court refused to pass on the legality of Carnival’s operation and instead dismissed the case on a legal technicality that the claims should have been brought by individual property owners rather than neighborhood associations and other groups,” said Blan Holman, the Southern Environmental Law Center attorney who represented the plaintiff groups in the lawsuit.

The Carnival Fantasy has sailed Caribbean cruises year-round from Charleston since 2010. The 2,052-passenger ship is Carnival’s oldest, having entered service in 1990.

Cruising’s advantage over theme park magic

By Tom Stieghorst

I had the chance last week to spend some time at a Central Florida theme park, one of the cruise industry’s competitors for the vacation dollar.

Universal Studios Orlando offers a formidable array of attractions, including an evening entertainment complex, three luxury hotels with a budget-priced resort in the wings and a pair of theme parks chock full of roller coasters, rides and faithful backlot reproductions of New York, San Francisco and even Homer Simpson’s hometown, Springfield.

The latest project at Universal is a re-creation of London for an attraction devoted to literary wizard Harry Potter. Sometime this summer The Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Diagon Alley will open, bringing the Wyndham Theater and other landmarks of the city to more than 6 million Universal Studios visitors annually.

Cruise lines have one crucial edge in the competition. While theme parks must re-create the world in Central Florida, cruise ships can actually bring guests to all of the fascinating destinations that can only be represented at land-based parks.

It seems almost too obvious to mention, but “destination” sometimes gets lost in the cruise industry’s sales initiatives.

One of Wizarding World’s marvels will be a train, the Hogwarts Express, running between the new attraction in Universal Studios and the original Harry Potter theme area in the adjacent Islands of Adventure park.

Although Universal is withholding details, executives hint that the train will have video screens instead of windows to project images of London and the British countryside on the journey from Diagon Alley to the imaginary Hogsmeade village in Scotland. It will be exciting to see, and I’ll look forward to it as much as the next theme park fan. But on a cruise excursion one could see the real thing in all of its glory. That has to trump seeing the facsimile in Orlando, no matter how clever the reproduction.

The same applies to the themed re-creations of France, China and Morocco in Walt Disney World’s Epcot or the Bavarian beer hall at Busch Gardens in Tampa. How much better to drink some locally brewed beer in Hamburg, or see the quays of Shanghai from the deck of a cruise ship.

Orlando has its advantages, too. Plenty of people who struggle to afford going abroad can see a version of distant lands there. But cruises can take guests to the real thing, and that’s a selling point agents ought to play up.

Which new river vessels are you most excited about?

By Michelle Baran

It just sunk in: A ton of brand new river cruise vessels are about to launch in March and April (my Outlook calendar is blowing up). I’ve been writing about the upcoming christenings all year, but now that the  are upon us, I’m finally thinking about the actual new hardware we’re about to see and some of the developments to be on the lookout for.

Here are some points of interest:

On March 26, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection will inaugurate the 159-passenger S.S. Catherine in Lyon, France, marking Uniworld's first expansion of its European fleet since 2011, when the vessel’s sister ship the S.S. Antoinette set sail.

Uniworld has a history of going all-out on its interiors — and judging by the early photos and renderings of the Catherine, this vessel will be no exception. A Leopard Lounge with safari-themed details? A mosaic-tiled pool and spa area? Have you seen those black-and-white stateroom interiors on their website? Needless to say, the vessel promises to be a feast for the senses.

Totally switching gears, on March 31 the 220-passenger paddlewheeler American Empress (formerly the Empress of the North) will be reincarnated by the American Queen Steamboat Co., bringing back a vessel to the Pacific Northwest that was built in 2003 and that has been laid up since the end of Majestic America Line in 2008. Steamboat enthusiasts and historians will surely be curious as to how well the company pulls off its resuscitation effort.

And let’s not forget that an entirely new river cruise line is launching in April: Emerald Waterways, Scenic Tours’ four-star European river cruising project.
I’m intrigued by the heated swimming pool with retractable roof and movie theater that are slated to be features of the 182-passenger Emerald Star and the 182-passenger Emerald Sky, which will set sail on April 15. I’m envisioning Starwood’s Aloft brand in river cruising form.

Speaking of mass brands, we can’t leave out Viking’s 14-ship-strong launch taking place in France in March. Will the new batch of Longships really be identical to their sister ship predecessors? Or will there be some new little personality and amenity tweaks to the 2014 flock?

And also, I’m curious how Viking will pull off a 14-vessel simul-christening. My best guess is live broadcasts from multiple launch sites. But Viking is good at surprises. They’ve been awfully quiet about the launches, and that could mean a lot of different things. It’s a nail-biter to be sure.

Illness outbreak affecting 300 passengers on Explorer of the Seas

By Phil Davies

Ten per cent of passengers on a Royal Caribbean International ship in the Caribbean are reported to have fallen ill with symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea.

US health officials boarded 3,505-passenger Explorer of the Seas in the US Virgin Islands yesterday to investigate the outbreak of gastrointestinal illness affecting at least 300 people. Twenty-two crew members also reported feeling ill.

The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said 281 of the 3,050 passengers on board the ship had reported getting sick during a Caribbean cruise that left Cape Liberty, New Jersey, last Tuesday.

The ship underwent "extensive and thorough sanitising" to help prevent more people getting sick during a previous call in Puerto Rico, a company spokeswoman said.

The vessel bypassed a scheduled stop at the company's beach destination in northern Haiti to sail directly to San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital.

"This was a difficult decision to make; however, we feel it is best to make this itinerary modification to help prevent any more guests from becoming ill," the spokeswoman told The Guardian.

She added that special cleaning products and disinfectants that are proven to kill norovirus were being used to clean the ship.

The passengers and crew who fell ill have "responded well to over-the-counter medication being administered on board the ship," she said.

At least two CDC officials, an epidemiologist and an environmental health officer, were expected to investigate and evaluate the response to the outbreak on the cruise liner.

MSC Cruises to halt ex-UK sailings in 2015

By Hollie-Rae Merrick 

MSC Cruises is halting its ex-UK sailings in 2015 as it looks to focus on its fly-cruise Mediterranean offering.

As part of the major refit of Lirica class ships, MSC Opera – currently sailing out of Southampton – will be out of action for part of the summer months in 2015.

The cruise line said this led to a decision to halt ex-UK sailings for a year to focus on fly-cruise capacity out of the UK.

Giles Hawke, executive director for UK, Ireland and Australia, said the line would be introducing new tools to support agents booking fly-cruises with MSC.

He said: “As market leader for Mediterranean cruises it is important that we work to reinforce this position by increasing our fly-cruise capacity, along with improving our ships to include more balcony cabins, more onboard entertainment and additional technological advancements.

“We are considering various charter options and working with our air partners to come up with the best approach to keep up with the current customer demand for fly-cruises direct to the Mediterranean.

“We will also be introducing tools supporting travel agents in order to make the fly-cruise booking process easier than ever.”

In total the Lirica class ships, made up of MSC Armonia, MSC Sinfonia, MSC Opera and MSC Lirica, will be in dry dock for 28 weeks.

In September, the cruise line revealed it was doubling its capacity out of Southampton for this year by sending MSC Magnifica to join Opera for four seven-night cruises.

Coast Guard to propose cruise ship video surveillance rules

By Tom Stieghorst

Nearly four years after passage of a comprehensive cruise safety law, the U.S. Coast Guard is getting ready to propose a rule for three of the trickiest provisions in the legislation.

The proposed rule, expected out in June, will outline how cruise lines can comply with a requirement in the Cruise Vessel Safety and Security Act that they deploy technology for “capturing images of passengers or detecting passengers who have fallen overboard.”

Also addressed in the rule will be how a cruise ship’s video surveillance system should be operated to document crimes on the ship and assist in their later prosecution.

Advocates of the law say the provisions will make passengers feel more secure about taking a cruise.

But the cruise industry has raised red flags about the cost and practicality of applying the law. In one instance, a cruise line told auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that just doubling the time it keeps video footage from 14 to 28 days would cost an extra $21.8 million.

Most of the 15 provisions in the 2010 act, such as peepholes in cabin doors and standard rail heights, had been translated into Coast Guard guidance by June 2011.

The remaining ones involved complex technologies and, in some cases, language in the law that didn’t set a clear benchmark for gauging compliance.

In the case of detecting when persons fall overboard, the law called for compliance “to the extent that such technology is available.”

The Coast Guard asked for input from cruise lines, CLIA and passenger advocacy groups to help formulate its rule.

A recent report by the Miami Herald found that at least 28 passengers went overboard on cruise ships between October 2010 and June 2013. Rapid detection of persons going overboard would clearly enhance safety, but cruise lines say the jury is still out on automated detection systems.

CLIA told the Coast Guard that the technology to capture images of overboard episodes exists, but not the ability to detect them in real time. CLIA said vessel movement, sun glare, salt spray encrustation and weather all make instruments unreliable.

If detectors either fail to report incidents, or report false incidents, that would raise the cost, liability and burden on passengers.

Still, several cruise lines are testing various technologies. One unidentified cruise executive told the GAO that if companies are required to go to the expense of installing detectors, they should not produce inaccurate results that would increase operating costs.

Video surveillance is another area where technology exists, but its application is open for debate. Victim advocacy groups say existing cameras should be monitored continuously for crime, and recorded images should be stored for up to 90 days.

CLIA recommended a risk-based approach that would take into account differences among vessels, cruise lines and itineraries and said video should be stored for a week, nearly matching the average cruise length of 7.2 days.

Coast Guard officials told GAO auditors that when the rule is issued in June, rather than being prescriptive it is likely to be performance-based — outlining what is to be achieved — to allow for some flexibility in implementation.