Silversea’s new muse

The luxury cruise sector is undergoing one of its periodic bullish periods with all the major brands ordering new ships or otherwise announcing expansion plans over the past year.

Some of that confidence may be coming from the same source as that driving the flurry of new ships on order for the contemporary brands: the fast-growing and China-dominated Asia market.

Silversea Cruises has just ordered one new ship, Silver Muse, and brand Chairman Manfredi Lefebvre says: “Market demand is very strong and we are expecting it to stay that way, fuelled by the growing numbers of Asian customers who are being attracted to luxury cruising.

“In fact, we are following the Chinese market very closely as we think that it will become one of the main markets for ultra-luxury cruising over the next decade and so might be ready soon for its own tailor-made product in that niche. “The number of potential customers from that region is staggering and it won’t necessarily require – as it has done for contemporary brands – that we increase our Asian deployments to tap into that market. The fact is that Asian customers are more interested in visiting Europe and other traditional destinations on luxury ships.”

The fact that Chinese passengers have quickly acquired a reputation for paying higher prices than more established cruise markets will not have been lost on the Silversea chairman who is also well aware of the increasing volatility of pricing around the world.

In fact, the luxury cruise sector is arguably as competitive as the mass market although it still tries to use added value more often than blatant discounting to secure the sales. Silversea recently announced the introduction of free wifi for all passengers fleetwide cruising from January 2016 onwards.

Lefebvre says: “In general, we are very pleased with pricing in the market but it is difficult to talk about a specific trend as – in our sector – it always depends on the demand and supply of specific itineraries. The more unusual the itinerary and the more limited the capacity deployed on it, the higher the demand and this keeps prices high.”

This was the thinking behind the brand’s entry into the expedition cruise sector – a move which has now been copied (to some degree) by all its rivals, with Crystal the last to take the plunge.

Silversea has steadily acquired ships to expand its expeditions fleet but is currently pausing for breath. “We do not foresee any additions in the short term as the fleet is managing to cover the most coveted destinations very well at the moment,” says Lefebvre.

Having the expeditions option has also benefited Silversea by attracting first-time cruisers who would never have considered taking a cruise until they were attracted by the new, exotic and adventurous destinations on offer by ship. This has also appealed to younger travellers.

He says: “Places like the Galapagos will tend to attract a much younger and more active demographic than most of our more conventional luxury cruise destinations.”

That said, he notes that Silversea is not as gung-ho for the millennials as the mass-market brands: “Baby boomers are still the main target for our part of the market simply because they have more time to travel.” And they are also one of the reasons for the continued operation of Silver Cloud and Silver Wind within the main Silversea fleet.

With both ships about 20 years old and carrying fewer than 300 passengers, there must have been thoughts of sub-branding or even selling them (as per Seabourn with its original three small ships) but he says: “We have a high number of repeat passengers (mostly boomers) and they show a very strong appreciation of these smaller ships. We are always looking for opportunities but for the time being the two will be marketed together with the rest of the Silversea fleet.”

And that fleet will include the 40,000gt and 596-passenger Silver Muse from the spring of 2017. He says: “It will continue the evolution of the fleet that started with Silver Spirit and will offer the best possible experience for our very discerning passengers.”

As ever with new ships these days, Silversea (and shipbuilder Fincantieri) will only be releasing detailed information on the design, dining and entertainment innovations that will deliver that enhanced experience in stages through to delivery. The newbuild will, however, certainly be the most advanced in the fleet in terms of environmental friendliness.

He says: “We have always been at the forefront of green technology and this is why we chose to partner with Scanship again to ensure the most advanced waste-handling system is onboard.” This system will be an evolution of the technology already in place on Silver Spirit and will include advanced wastewater purification, vacuum food waste processing and garbage handling (including incineration).

So far, though, Silversea has not chosen to go down the LNG route. “We have been following the development of the new fuel technologies very closely but at this point we are not specifically working on any LNG project,” explains Lefebvre.

“With its mass-market brands, Carnival can probably push the development of the necessary infrastructure and fuel availability for LNG in specific ports as their ships tend to stay on the same routes for longer periods of time. But, for Silversea, the lack of general LNG availability would represent an issue as we are visiting a very large number of ports in the year and do not repeat the same itineraries very often.”

For example, Silver Whisper makes a 116-day world cruise in 2017 which visits 62 ports in 25 countries. “But,” says Lefebvre, “once that availability spreads beyond the Baltic region, we will certainly begin to consider a dual-fuel (one of them LNG) ship.”