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This article was first published in the Itinerary Planning Special Report 2016. All information was correct at the time of printing, but may since have changed.
The biggest challenge of creating new itineraries is that any deployment you change can take years to fully see the results. That’s according to Linda Springmann, Holland America Line’s vice president of itinerary planning and deployment. “Once a new or revised itinerary is published, we can get an early read on interest by watching demand and yields,” she explains. “But until we’ve actually visited the new port or sailed a new itinerary, we can’t fully recognise the results from a guest satisfaction standpoint, which is equally as important as the sales figures.”
That’s not to say that Holland and America Line isn’t finding ways to meet this challenge. “We constantly stay updated on new development in ports to understand how changes might impact us such as which ships can visit based on the size and capacity of the vessel and port infrastructure, and what impact there may be to our guests overall experience,” Springmann says. “We survey every itinerary to have an educated understanding how each port performs. We also monitor bookings as the selling season progresses to measure interest in the itineraries as the natural demand develops. And of course, we make a concerted effort to take our guests to the right places at the right time, like Edinburgh, Scotland in August when the Military Tattoo takes place, and Rio de Janeiro during Carnival.”
It’s this degree of understanding that has resulted in Holland America Line expanding a number of itineraries for 2017. “We’re very excited to be offering a Grand Asia sailing in late 2017 which will sail roundtrip from San Diego and spend considerable time in Japan and China before returning via Indonesia and Australia,” Springmann explains. “In addition to this Asia focused sailing, based on feedback from our guests we’ve extended our Asia season on Volendam and expanded our Japan offerings.
“Besides these Asia items, a few other examples are a new Southern Australia cruise that visits Melbourne, Adelaide, Port Lincoln, Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island for penguin viewing opportunities, as well as Tasmania. In Europe, Prinsendam will circle Ireland on her Celtic Explorer roundtrip from Amsterdam in 2017 visiting the western coastal ports of Killybegs and Galway. And Oosterdam’s Barcelona to Venice series in 2017 will now include a call to Split, Croatia. Each year we try to have a balance of new itineraries and small tweaks to some of the existing offerings such as these.”