Cruise Industry Leaders Share Their Vision

First Ever Virtual
National Conference

The highlight of our first day of 2020 Vision Virtual National Conference were presentations by cruise line leaders Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Arnold Donald, CEO of Carnival Corporation.

Additionally, David Crooks, SVP of Products and Supplier Relations, WTH had an intimate conversation with Richard Fain, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group.

All three of these leaders appreciated our partnership, friendships, support and loyalty throughout this unprecedented pause in global cruise operations.  They see Travel Advisors as a critical ingredient in the resumption of cruising.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings 

"There are big ships, small ships, and even space ships, but the most important ship is the one we are all on, and that is fellowship, friendship, and partnership.".   

Frank Del Rio first thanked the travel advisors of our network for their support during this year which hasn't been easy for anyone.  

He commented that these past 7 months have given us many learnings and given us chances for innovations.  "Our industry is coming together like never before and quire frankly like no other industry I can think of."

He suggested we need to "keep leveraging our combined resources, knowledge, skills and passion to get the global cruise industry sailing again".  He encouraged us to think about our role as a travel advisor.  In these unprecedented times, everything we are doing contributes not only to our own businesses, but to the whole industry, and even the broader hospitality space. 

He remains optimistic about the "soon and safe resumptions of sailings.  It's around the corner, trust me."   He goes on "Via the multi-level approach, that far exceeds the current requirements, the health and safety of our guests will continue to be front and center to the cruise experience."

Together, let's continue to be patient and ready for when we get the green light.  He concludes that the current situation is temporary and he believes "we will come out of this just fine.  It will take some time - not like turning on a light switch." The world has overcome pandemics and other crisis before.  This "should give us hope that we will indeed get through it together."

Carnival Corporation

"There has never been a time when Travel Advisors were more valuable than now, as we look to move out of the pause and begin cruising again."

Arnold Donald began by thanking the agents of our network indicating that we've been critical in helping our clients and their guests navigate this unprecedented pause in cruising.

As we look to move out of the pause and begin cruising again, he advises that we "need to be fully acquainted with health and safety protocols that will be implemented."

He continued that for the time being "every vacation or travel choice will include consideration of health and safety aspects."   

So when it comes to choosing a cruise, this "could help distinguish us in the marketplace because there is no other product out there today that has as extensive health and safety protocols -no hotel, no airline, no airbnb, no theme park." 

He cited an example: "No resort is requiring 100% universal testing of their guests like we are."

This means that "Now, not only is a cruise the best vacation experience, and the best vacation value, it is also one of the best choices for a safe and healthy vacation."

"I'm very optimistic about the future of cruising and about our teams across Carnival Corporation." 

David Crooks, SVP of Product & Supplier Relations, WTH  holds a very intimate conversation with Richard Fain, Chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group

Royal Caribbean is one of the main cruise industry members, along with NCL Holdings and Carnival Corp., working closely with the CDC to establish the protocols to safely resume cruising.

We are privileged to have an executive of his caliber engage with our travel advisor community year after year.  It speaks to the partnership that we've enjoyed for decades.

Royal Caribbean

"Unlike other travel experiences, we control the environment completely... Our objective is to come up with a set of protocols so that when you are on a cruise ship, you are actually safer than you are if you are in your home town."

"We believe that the Travel Advisor role was critical  and will be even more critical as we are going forward."

David Crooks interviewed Richard Fain in this segment of the General Session.  David commented on how the communications throughout the shutdown have been so realistic and informative, educational, and optimistic.  

"You talked about the state of the industry, which was on everyone's mind, but you also educated about the virus, the spread, how to control it, and science of it. Also you were optimistic talking about the advancements being made to help control it."

"Really appreciate you keeping us all educated"

Richard appreciated David saying that and he stated that "Communication in this COVID world is so important and so much more difficult."   He hates that we have to do this conference virtually for example.

He continued, "Those videos helped me a lot, I spent time preparing for them, it gave me a much more feeling of connection with our travel advisors. We are going through a terrible time together and we need to make sure we stay together as we go through it."

The conversation continued around how Richard navigated through this challenging times.  "The industry is going through challenging times but I need to remind myself how lucky we are. There are so many people suffering so badly and that just wears on me."

"Having to work in isolation like this works on everyone. Two things have helped me personally, one is the support of our people, friends and business colleagues, like yourself and other travel advisors, supporting us. People at Royal Caribbean are amazing and their passion hasn't diminished one bit."

He continued "We as an industry have been through tough times before, nothing like this, and the fact that we have more time ahead of us is incredibly frustrating, but the determination, everybody is using their imagination, their focus, to say, yes we are going to get through this and we are going to be prepared as soon as that happens." 

He feels lucky to be in this industry because he sees the best in people and he finds it invigorating. "This has been a challenge for us all in the industry; continues to be a challenge. I do point out we are getting near the end of it (not at the end of it).  To see how the innovation, the determination, has held us all together is quite encouraging."

"As you say, we are very social, and it is very frustrating to be isolated like this. But doing something like this, just talking to you, to be together, to talk about it and find solutions... not many people get to do that".

Regarding the spike in the virus that we are seeing right now, Richard stated "The experts have been predicting this surge, at this time, from the very beginning."  He continued, "The surge you are talking about is the surge in the number of cases and we are not seeing is the same surge in fatality rate. Our ability to deal with it does keep improving."   He mentioned that there is a lagging effect and there is an expectation the fatality rate will also go up.  

He highlighted some promising signs: "But I'm optimistic that the therapies have been dramatic, the way the doctors have learned to treat it is remarkable, particularly in the older age groups, the more vulnerable.  The testing is coming out very quickly now.  The vaccines are extremely promising."

Remains Optimistic

Richard discussed the mood of the people fluctuates with the current news.  The desire to go cruising will be dependent on the current news.  "The rest of the year is going to be difficult from a COVID point of view, we've been preparing for that, but it doesn't dim my optimism about being able to start, in very small ways, by end of year."

"The end of year is an arbitrary date, what we want to show is tangible forward momentum."   

"Overall I feel good, but it's a difficult time and I feel terrible for people suffering during this time.  Saying that we will be back to some "normal" doesn't help someone that is suffering today."

David commented that we do know that people want to cruise and there is a pent up demand.  He questioned whether demand could be greater than capacity.  He was looking for advice on how travel advisors should be selling future cruises.   Light heartedly, Richard indicated "that would be a nice problem to have".   "The way we are expecting this to happen is a slow build up over time."  If demand was greater than they would look at accelerating that process.

He said "I think the world underestimates how much pent up demand there is. From my friends and neighbors, people are ready to go out there. The cruise experience offers the best chance at that...  (since we control the complete environment)."

"If we can meet our goal (of providing the safe environment with our protocols), that will drive more demand."

David highlighted the social bubble they are creating and the investment the industry has made in private islands as being a contributing factor of the safe cruise experience.  He also thinks those that haven't been financially impacted by COVID-19 have also been saving money since they haven't been going out, so that will also contribute to the pent up demand.

"We are not going to start until we know it's the appropriate time to do so, that it's prudent, that we can do it in a safe and healthy manner. But we will also do it a little slowly, so the idea that there's this pent up demand, and it will be hard to get exactly what you want, in the early days could well be a factor."

Vision for 2021 & Beyond

Speaking to his vision for 2021 and beyond, Richard said "Optimistic that when we get going, it will be faster than that (not seeing improvements until 2022).  Yes, we'll see a difficult end of 2020, but with the therapeutics getting better, the testing getting better, the vaccine coming along, I'm quite optimistic.  I don't think I need to look as far as 2022, to get to a more normal time."

 With regards to those that say cruising is going to be different.... "I do think cruising will be different.  Over the years our mantra has been continuous improvement. We always change our product. It will be different now than it was a year ago. It was different a year ago than it was two years ago,   It's gradual changes."

"Things that make the cruise so special. The socialization, going to new places, the ability to provide a level of service in the society that people aren't used to, entertainment, all of those things are going to remain the hallmark of the cruise industry."

"Some of the protocols we are introducing will reduce some of the health issues that were there anyhow.  We will be better prepared in the future."  He feels people will say "The cruise experience was a little bit better than it was a year ago, and a year later it will be better still.  That's the whole concept of continuous improvement.  That's something that our company feels very strongly about.  That's something I see in our future."

Travel Advisor Role

David commented about how supportive Royal Caribbean has been of travel advisors, before and even now throughout the pandemic.  He asked about Richard's vision about the role of the travel advisor going forward.

"We aren't supportive of travel advisor community because we are good people (although we are) but we do so because we believe it is in our best interest.  The travel advisor has always been the one that creates the demand, that pushed people in the way of cruising.  And it becomes more important that the travel advisor explains what's the difference (between brands).  For us, that knowledge is very important."

"In light of the pandemic, that becomes even more important. No normal human learns as much about ships do, what shipping companies do, as travel advisors do.  This is their field, so this is what they do, and they can communicate.  That's what we need.  Knowledge is key to our future."

He went on to say that there's so much misinformation out there. "We need travel advisors to guide people to make them understand what's going on."

Richard concluded by thanking us for partnership for decades and for our support.

 

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