The trouble with market research is that it cannot disguise the fact that real people do not always know what they want, whether from life, work and family. Or holiday.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) president Mark Conroy says: “On our passenger surveys, we ask why they have booked the cruise and they almost always say ‘the destinations and ports of call’ but when the next question asks how we could improve our cruises, the same people answer ‘more days at sea’.
“The fact is that a typical luxury passenger wants a combination of both, but we sell a lot more 10-day, port-rich Mediterranean cruises than transatlantic or other long positioning voyages so it is pretty clear that destinations are all-important.”
Which is why, when RSSC was looking for a unique selling point (USP) to give bookings a lift as Western economies were heading south in post-credit crunch 2008, it decided to include most of its shore excursions in the cruise price. The result meant higher load factors – now reaching a record 92 per cent – and a record financial performance for the brand in 2010, which it all but matched in 2011.
Conroy says: “It also increased passenger satisfaction levels because more people were taking tours in every port and so were seeing more of the destination and enjoying the cruise to a greater extent because of it. There was a cost to us of course, but not as much as people might imagine because we were able to more or less guarantee numbers to the tour operators and negotiate a better price per head.”
Significantly, around 25 per cent of tours from RSSC continue to carry a charge, while the line made complimentary those costing US$200 or less, leaving excursions such as flightseeing in Alaska, as pay-for tours.
Demand remains for customised, private tours as there are luxury passengers who will always prefer to do their own thing, separate from their fellow guests.
Conroy says: “Our customers do not want to compromise their lifestyles when they vacation. When we are asked what they make for dinner at home, we always say `reservations’.”
This has to be reflected not just in the dining and service but in the onshore experience too.
Having been the boss of two luxury lines – Seabourn and Silversea – and Cunard Line with its Grill-Class luxury product, Larry Pimentel has long experience in meeting the needs of upscale passengers.
So when he was given the job of driving forward Royal Caribbean Cruises' Premium-Plus Azamara Cruises, Conroy did more than just add ‘Club’ to the name and include wine with meals, he turned it into a line that was committed to ‘destination immersion’.
He explains: “The luxury market has been evolving from a time when we could charge (and get) US$900 per diems based simply on the quality of the food, service and accommodation.
“Those days are long gone and what counts now are experiences. People are looking for things which define them, which mean destinations. They will pick a destination with a culture that resonates with them and will give them an experience they cannot replicate at home.
“The way destinations and their cultures are delivered is now key to satisfying luxury cruise customers and this cuts across every nationality. So at Azamara, we have slowed down our two ships and they now regularly stay in ports for one, two or even three nights.
“After all, if you go to somewhere like St Tropez or South Beach, Miami and arrive at 10am to leave at 4.30pm, you have effectively missed what these places have to offer. The nightlife.
“We also make sure our passengers can go to museums when there are no lines and that they can eat in restaurants where the locals dine. Nearly a quarter of our passengers are first-time cruisers and they are coming because they want to see a country in depth.
“We may have lost a few sales because we now have fewer calls in our cruises but I believe there is a much larger market of people who want to stay longer in the ports that we do visit. I think we are now attracting people who would not have chosen a cruise if they all offered only short stays in port.”
Silversea chief operating officer Ken Watson sees the emerging Chinese and other Asian markets as increasingly destination-led and says: “Asians are the leading buyers of luxury goods right now. Those marketing Rolex watches say they could sell every single one of them in Hong Kong if they chose to do so. But in 10-15 years when those markets have bought everything they want, there will be a tremendous opportunity for luxury cruise brands because those people are going to move on to purchasing experiences.”
He says the brand has already noticed increasing numbers of Chinese passengers on Silver Explorer, its expedition cruise ship.
“The Chinese have long been constrained in their overseas travel so they all have bucket lists of places they want to visit and for a lot of them, Antarctica and the Arctic are at or near the top.”
This potential clearly informed the Silversea decision to buy a second expedition ship, the Galapagos Explorer II, midway through 2012 with a view to refurbishing and renaming it for ready for operating in 2013.
Conroy has also seen the bucket list at work in RSSC's North American market and says: “We had an itinerary which looked great when we created it, as it went from Safaga in Egypt to Mumbai, but then came the Arab Spring and nobody wanted to go. So we added land packages around iconic places like Petra and it went straight from being a dog to becoming a really good seller.
“These places are on a lot of people’s bucket lists and once we were offering them such life-enhancing experiences, suddenly they were not ‘afraid of Egypt’ anymore.”
Cunard Line president Peter Shanks says: “I climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge last year alongside one of our passengers. He was 84 years old and he told me doing that was on his bucket list.”
The other key trend in destination delivery is not exclusive to the luxury sector but it does have its greatest potential there. It is voluntourism.
Jenny Cartier Sauleau, who is president of Sixth Star Travel, a US-based specialist in luxury cruises, says: “Rather than luxury travel being all about conspicuous consumption, people are now moving towards giving something back rather than only taking from the places they visit.”
Crystal Cruises was first in the sector to identify this trend and modify its shore experience product offering with its ‘You Care, We Care’ tours.
This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in the Autumn/ Winter 2012 edition of International Cruise & Ferry Review. To read the full article, you can subscribe to the magazine in printed or digital formats.