What is new and exciting about your 2017 itineraries?
Chris Gale, head of destination and deployment planning at P&O Cruises: P&O Cruises has launched its biggest and most varied holiday programme ever. Whether it’s watching the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, taking in the view of the Bay of Naples in Sorrento or sailing the waters of Cape Horn, there’s something for everyone. Offering more adventure and greater choice, it features new and inspiring destinations, more ex-UK cruising, more discovery cruise options, a 2018 world cruise collection, scenic cruising, special event cruises, new seven- and 14-night Mediterranean fly-cruises from Malta on Oceana and a choice of Greek island ventures.
Lisa McAuley, commercial director for UK and Ireland, Silversea: 2017 is set to be a big year for Silversea with the launch of our new flagship Silver Muse in April. During her inaugural year, Silver Muse will visit 34 countries and over 130 ports, offering guests the chance to visit a remarkable 52 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, from ancient Greek temples through to historic Caribbean fortresses. In February, Silver Discoverer in our expedition fleet will make the first-ever cruise ship visit to Bangladesh with explorations of Chittagong, Maheshkhali Island, and the Sundarbans, one of the world's largest mangrove forests and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Michael Pawlus, head of strategic itinerary and destination planning, Azamara Club Cruises: In 2017, we’ll continue to excite our guests with exclusive adventures around the world, staying longer in port and offering in-depth local experiences. Throughout the year we have 65 voyages to 203 ports in 68 countries, and we’re introducing four brand new ports including Kaikoura in New Zealand, Mahe in Seychelles, Yucatan in Mexico and George Town in Grand Cayman. Our guests can look forward to new routes including Australia to Asia, Southern California to South Beach and our Pearls of the Indian Ocean voyage which sails from Bombay through to the Seychelles, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Goa. We’ll also be revisiting old favourites such as the ‘Monaco Grand Prix’ voyage and the ‘A look back in history’ voyage, which cruises through Normandy, Holland and Germany. Personally, I’m really excited by the March 6, 2017 16-night New Zealand Explorer cruise on Azamara Journey from Auckland to Sydney which includes nine ports in New Zealand plus Milford Sound. New Zealand is a beautiful country and the best way to immerse yourself in and completely experience it is on a cruise ship.
Achille Staiano, head of commercial services at MSC Cruises: Creating superb itineraries is a very important piece of the puzzle, and takes a huge amount of work, planning and strategy. This has become even more important as we have grown – over the last ten years we’ve increased the number of passengers we serve from 120,000 to 1.7 million. I believe one of the highlights of 2017 for us will be our cruises to Cuba. We are going to be there with two ships, leaving on Tuesday and Saturday from Havana. We’re also excited about our cruises to Dubai and The Emirates – this destination gives us the opportunity to give our customers a completely different experience.
What are the key criteria that ports need to meet in order to make it onto your itineraries?
McAuley: Silversea offers destination-focused itineraries, we call into many new and lesser visited ports so it is vital that the areas we visit offer a genuine and immersive travel experience for our guests.
Staiano: Ports need to have all of the facilities in place that meet the actual needs of the market – this is absolutely key in order to attract more investment. A good balance in terms of cost per passenger is also essential.
Pawlus: We’re committed to providing our guests with the opportunity to spend more time in awe-inspiring destinations, and our two ships visit some of the best in the world. We carefully curate constantly evolving itineraries that allow overnight stays and late night departures from fantastic locations, where we can organise onshore excursions to provide a truly authentic experience of each locality we sail to. Our guests are curious explorers, so we always consider a destination’s potential for providing inspiring Land Discoveries excursions. For example, our two-day ‘overnight nature experience’ in Townsville, Australia, explores the oldest continual living rainforest and guests stay in a solar-powered cabin complex owned by a local family.
Gale: The most important thing is to create appealing itineraries that deliver well for customers. In designing a cruise programme, we look to create cruises that cater for different types of people. The strength of itineraries is gauged through a detailed port rating process that combines appeal and satisfaction scores allowing the focus to be on ports that are strongest to customers. Alongside this, P&O Cruises test itinerary appeal direct with customers through market research. The diversity of deployments also helps as a point of difference in the cruise market.
How do you ensure your itineraries meet customer expectations?
Pawlus: We always listen to feedback from our guests and highly value their opinions to ensure that we’re ticking all the boxes. For example, many of our guests expressed an interest in sailing to Australia so we introduced this with our inaugural visit in December 2015. We look into what is selling well and monitor trends to predict future demand, in addition to seeking out new and exciting ports and experiences that we know our guests will love. We aim to give returning guests somewhere different to explore, and our first-time cruisers a wide variety of destinations to choose from. With destination immersion at the centre of what we do, we are always looking for ways to surpass our guests’ expectations with an extensive selection of shore excursions in culturally-rich destinations. We are constantly looking to enhance our onshore offering with the development of programmes such as Nights and Cool Places which features a range of specially curated after dinner tours, and ‘AzAmazing Evenings’, which offer guests the exclusive opportunity to experience the best of local culture. We are sensitive to climate conditions and local events to allow our guests to experience a destination at its best, and continually monitor world, regional and political situations to influence our itinerary planning.
McAuley: Our small, boutique ships are able to dock in smaller ports that many other vessels simply can't access such as docking alongside Tower Bridge in London and transiting the Corinth Canal in Greece. This allows us to create bespoke destination focussed voyages for our guests. Silversea offers an all-inclusive luxurious onboard experiencing while allowing guests to delight in the thrill of discovery on shore. Our excursions and pre- and post-cruise land programmes allow guests to immerse themselves in local cultures, so in designing out itineraries a key factor is partnering with land partners that share the same vision and standards as Silversea.
Staiano: First of all we try to look at things from the customer perspective and not just do things because they’re cost effective. Taking an international approach and conducting in depth customer surveys is essential, as is placing importance on paying great attention to detail in every single area. Making everybody happy is a challenge, but we really do try. Our motto ‘think local, act local’, is key.
Gale: It is crucial to understand how customer drivers and motivators change. One of the most significant elements influencing customer appeal is cruise experience. The most experienced cruisers tending to look for new things whilst those that are new to cruising want the best and most famous destinations. In designing a cruise programme P&O Cruises looks to create itineraries that cater for different experience bands.
What is the most difficult part about planning a new itinerary?
Staiano: For us it’s dealing with the geographical problems that are out of our control. The problems in Tunisia, Turkey and the Ukraine, for example, require us to adapt and change our plans, often in a very short period of time.
Gale: The biggest challenge is trying to predict demand patterns 18-24 months ahead of when the cruises actually depart. P&O Cruises undertakes a lot of market research – both qualitative and quantitative – and predicts customer booking behaviour to garner understanding. Then of course finding the right balance, one of the great things about cruising is that you get a unique perspective from the sea and P&O Cruises programme offers a range of spectacular sail-by experiences such as Venice, Stockholm, Fjords and much closer to home the British Isles.
McAuley: There are a number of factors taken into consideration when planning our Silversea itineraries, from the seasons to geography, political situations and whether the region has the infrastructure to support our guests.
Pawlus: There are numerous considerations to be made when planning a new itinerary, such as fuel availability, tides, local laws, provisioning, water availability and much more. Finalising an itinerary isn’t always plain sailing, but at the end of the process – when you’ve curated an itinerary rich in destination immersion and incredible moments for guests to experience – it’s an exciting feeling.