NEWLY appointed Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL) Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand Gavin Smith (CW 09 Oct) has wasted no time getting in front of the cruise industry, urging the local sector to focus on the “new to cruise” market. Speaking at a function earlier this week to...
NEWLY appointed Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCL) Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand Gavin Smith (CW 09 Oct) has wasted no time getting in front of the cruise industry, urging the local sector to focus on the “new to cruise” market.
Speaking at a function earlier this week to launch RCL’s 2019/20 Australasian season, Smith noted the exceptional penetration rate of cruising among the Australian and New Zealand population, but added that despite this, there was still a huge opportunity.
“As cruise lines we don’t really compete with each other for guests…what we’re competing for is newcomers,” he said.
“What we’re competing for are the 20-odd million Aussies and Kiwis who just haven’t gotten around to it yet – they’re the people we want to get after.”
Smith said the sudden recall of his predecessor, Susan Bonner, to return to work with Celebrity Cruises in Miami had created a great opportunity for him to return home.
“I’m excited to be back in the business here, because Australia’s an exciting place to work”.
The cruise landscape has changed somewhat since Smith headed offshore about four years ago.
“We’ve got to be very honest with ourselves about the strength of the competition in the local market.”
He didn’t directly refer to rival Carnival Corporation’s deployment of newer vessels in Australasia, including Majestic Princess, but noted the “heavy investment” being undertaken by Royal Caribbean’s competition which has brought “big changes” in hardware.
“We’ve had a really good run here, and we’ve got world class ships, but I think we’ve got to be bolder, we’ve got to be more single-minded, a lot more purposeful,” Smith said.
He flagged a revitalised approach to the industry, saying “we’ve got to win back the hearts and minds of the trade”.
Smith noted the burgeoning order books of all three Royal Caribbean brands, saying there were 10-year plans to build “ship after ship after ship”.
Innovation continues to be key for Royal Caribbean, which as well as developing some of the world’s largest and most technically advanced vessels, has also gone so far as to create its own destinations in the Caribbean, such as Coco Cay, which are now among its top-rated ports.
While some of the new capacity in the fleet pipeline will go to markets with huge potential such as China, “these ships will also continue to come to Australia and New Zealand.
“We’ll sort out old Circular Quay over here, we’ll work out where the ships are going to park and how that’s going to work.
“We’ll create the room and then we’re going to create the market,” he concluded.
Smith is pictured at the season launch event with Royal Caribbean Marketing Director, Kathryn Valk.
