WHILE Virgin Voyages’ top brass were in town this week to celebrate the launch of the brand in Australia (CW 13 Nov), Cruise Weekly spoke with the brand’s Head of International Sales Shane Riley (pictured) about how the line views the role of technology on board its ships. Riley said...
WHILE Virgin Voyages’ top brass were in town this week to celebrate the launch of the brand in Australia (CW 13 Nov), Cruise Weekly spoke with the brand’s Head of International Sales Shane Riley (pictured) about how the line views the role of technology on board its ships.
Riley said that although Virgin Voyages takes onboard tech seriously, it only seeks to embrace innovation it feels will genuinely resonate with its passengers.
“For me it’s not tech for the sake of tech…it’s about making sure that our technology is really enhancing the experience,” Riley explained.
“Tech should be invisible in a way, it’s there to enhance your experience but you’re not thinking the whole time, oh this is really great tech,” he added.
Riley cited Virgin Voyages’ recently unveiled shake for champagne service (CW 11 Oct) as an example of this philosophy.
“For example, it’s easy to get the best phone in the world but if you don’t know how to use it, what’s the point, so really it is about the end user and being able to provide an amazing experience and use the tech to enable that, rather than the tech being something people have to get to grips with,” Riley said.
