Royal Caribbean is enhancing its trade relationships by investing in initiatives like Upper Deck, according to Gerard Nolan, the Castleknock-born Shannon graduate (class of 2003) who is vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the cruise line.
Upper Deck, the latest initiative, rewards agents for direct bookings and providing exclusive experiences for top spenders, including unique events and incentives to experience cruises firsthand.
The company is retaining its fleet in Europe, with a $130m investment in Allure of the Seas, which will be revitalized for the 2024 season, alongside the return of several other ships, showcasing a renewed focus on the region and its market potential. The 5,500-passenger vessel entered service as sister ship to Oasis of the Seas in 2010.
In an interview to mark the current agent roadshow, he updated Travel Extra on Royal Caribbean’s commitment to sustainability includes collective efforts with industry partners to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, utilizing new technologies and efficient ship designs to reduce carbon footprints.
The demand for cruises is strong across different markets, particularly in the US and Ireland, highlighting the company’s strategy to combine land and sea offerings, with plans to introduce more short cruise packages that appeal to diverse customer needs.
Top 100 agents move into the Upper Deck club
Mr Nolan told Travel Extra: The Irish travel trade and our trade in general are always a big part of our business and remain so. We’re investing a lot—we’ve launched Upper Deck, which is our newest trade agent incentive. It’s very much rewarding our agents for booking with us directly. Our top-end tier means they can earn up to £500 for bookings they make, and it goes straight onto their credit card. We also have a quite unique club, so the top 100 move into the Upper Deck club, which means we invite them to unique launches. They get specific niceties that we don’t offer everyone else, but that’s when you hit $100,000 in spend.
We’re also running a really good trade agent incentive. For those agents who are booking today, between now and the end of this month, the top 12 will be taken to the Caribbean, and they’re going to sail with us for five nights on Independence of the Seas. That’s really what we want to do; we need to showcase our offering, take people there, and let them feel it and experience it.
My team is currently out on the road, doing a sales blitz. We’re everywhere; we’re going to hit 150 agencies across next month. I was in the Irish market last week, as you know, and it’s about listening to feedback and how we can partner with our agents. We really value what they do to support us, and we don’t see that stopping or continuing.
Our guests are our North Star, they guide us
We plan our itineraries further out, and we really listen to our guests as our North Star, they guide us. The guest really defines and dictates what we offer.
Next year, we’re going to have five ships in Europe. Allure of the Seas is back in Barcelona, for the first time since 2015. There’s a £130 million investment and full revamp, bringing flavours that you’re seeing on Icon back on the Oasis-class ships. Allure will have seven-night rotations all the way through the season, and we’ll have a couple of short sailings when she comes out initially in April, so four- and five-nighters as well if you wanted to taste it. Then we’ll run seven nights through the season. Exciting times for the year; she comes back in with a full revamp!
We’re going to have Independence out of Southampton, and it’s a nice return of a ship that has been with us before, Odyssey from Civitavecchia, Brilliance from Piraeus, Explorer from Ravenna, and Voyager from Piraeus, Barcelona, Ravenna and Civitavecchia.
We also have good airlift. We’ve got charters from Belfast and good allocations that will link in with Odyssey and the Mediterranean products.
I think we’ve got a really good breadth for the Irish consumer to consider. We’re in a good place for what we have on the shelf, and we’re looking forward to welcoming more and more of my native Irish friends on board.
Ireland has second highest spend per capita
Ireland has the second highest spend per capita on Royal Caribbean ships having previously held the highest per capita spend. This is the one thing we look at; we look at the total spend. The Irish guest likes to holiday. We do it well, and they don’t just invest when they book; they invest from the moment they’re on board and go and enjoy themselves. You know, we’re really trying to make sure we’re bringing real quality customers onto our quality product.
The reaction in Ireland to Icon shows there has always been an affinity with the Caribbean in Ireland, and the Irish market for us is really, really important. I think the alignment of what the Irish consumer wants and what we’re offering is there.
I think, not just with my affinity to my home country, but it is a really good marriage between what the Irish guest is craving for and what we offer, the combination of what our offering is and the good airlift—there’s a really good combination., I’m really keen to grow the Irish market and really see there’s a big opportunity.
And it’s not just the Caribbean with Icon. You know, we’ve got Star of the Seas coming next year in August, so another equivalent. But we also have Allure of the Seas coming back into Europe next year with a $130m investment and a full revamp. We’re bringing real favourites, what you would class not as an older ship, but just more of one of the existing Oasis-class ships.
Complexity is the first thing I noticed about cruising
As an outsider coming into the cruise industry, I’d say that the complexity of the operation is the first thing I noticed about it. It is very different from what I would have been used to. If I consider how it all comes together, it fascinates me still. If we think of the teams that I interact with, my remit is more on sales and marketing, driving and finding new customers to experience the product. However, the complexity that sits within actually delivering where the ships operate—the legal complexity, the operational side of it from the different ports— is a huge difference.
The good thing about our sector is we can move things to different areas, so we can generate more revenue and create some really amazing holiday offerings for our guests. We have that luxury of being able to move things. I’ve had the experience, obviously, prior to coming in, where we’ve had hotels that weren’t working, back in my hotel days. You’re somewhat stuck with the landscape that you’re in purely because of the logistics of it. The complexity is definitely one of the areas.
Where the sun shines, the ships follow
Our customers travel with us. We’re over 300 destinations across the globe, and where the sun shines, the ships follow. No doubt the ships are full. That’s the amazing thing—they are! I saw that with Icon of the Seas and our launch earlier this year, he opportunity to bring different parts of your family together and have an amazing holiday all in one offering is what Icon brings.
We’ve got record load factors, we’ve got brilliant NPS, and the satisfaction of our guests on that offering is immense. I think there’s a little differentiation that we bring. I know we bring scale, but I think we also bring very much what the guest is asking for. More and more, they want something that differentiates from— in many ways, if you think of land-based offerings, we are a very different offering, and we offer a huge amount when it comes to value and what’s included.
I’ve had that in my own experience this year when I’m trying to think of where to take my family. When I compare what we offer within the cruise sector versus what you have on land, often the value proposition is so strong. I think it’s about how do we introduce that to the guests who haven’t tried it yet.
More ships on the Caribbean
We gravitate towards the Caribbean naturally because that’s where we originated from, that’s where our head office is, but equally, that’s where we’ve got the most mature cruise market. So it doesn’t leave us lacking in Europe.
We will operate with five ships next year. That is the benefit we have of bringing in new ships at the pace we have. I think that was one of the things during the pandemic—we didn’t stop building; we continued. We knew we were playing the long game, and the opportunity to bring the new class of ships over to this other world is definitely on the cards in the coming years.
We’re really optimistic. Cruise as a sector is growing faster than any other at the moment, and where we sit, we’re really pleased.
The appetite in the US market into the European itineraries is strong, and it’s been strong post-COVID, as it would be, you know, when people weren’t able to travel. That always makes up a sizable part of our business. The good thing is that generally, our business across all the markets is steady and strong.
Star of the Sea set to launch in August 2025
More information about Star of the Seas will be shared more over the coming months, but similar to what you just touched on, in the Icon-class ships, you’ll see a lot of the firm favourites that we have in Icon appear again on Star. She’s joining us to do seven-night itineraries out of Orlando. So, you’ll see Utopia doing the shorter three and four-night cruises, and then Star doing the seven-night cruises. It’s a great combination whether you want to go and do something on land and package that up with Orlando and so on. There’s a great opportunity to do that for short or longer stays.
I think it really does allow us to position ourselves where you can marry the best of land with sea. Also, when you think of our entertainment offering, you know we’re in places like Vegas. There’s an awful lot in our ship offering and land offering when you think of Perfect Day at CocoCay and the private destination offerings that we do have coming. We’ve also got the beach clubs coming over the next two years, with one in the Bahamas and another in Cozumel. We’ve got two really unique offerings that will have, you know, three pools, swim-up bars, and a lot of firm favourites that we’re already experiencing within the offering that you have in CocoCay. There is a lot more to come from the brand.
Orlando offers advantages for the lift—it’s fairly substantial European lift. Being an island nation, you’ve got to fly anywhere, and I think Ryanair is a great example of enabling that. But we have the same; we’ve got great Aer Lingus. So, there is the ability to get there, and that’s always one of the challenges we have. We’re working more and more with our partners to see where we can find synergies, equally in the Irish market.
More and more synergy is really what I think would help collectively. The 3-4 day cruise that we saw with Utopia is very much the coming thing in America. The international market behaves a little bit differently; we have further to go, so we’ll probably stay longer. I think it’s a consideration—obviously the distance you’ve got to travel.
But if you consider the ultimate weekend, which is what Utopia offers, we’re definitely seeing it. As I say, you’ve got Star with sevens and Utopia with three- and four-nighters, so the offering is there. If you want to package and combine it, you’ve got plenty of choice.
Every ship class roughly 30pc more sustainable
As regards sustainability, as ever, it’s not one thing that will fix it. I think we’re working with CLIA (the Cruise Lines International Association), we’re working with the ports, we’re working with destinations, and I think the togetherness in that is where we’ll be able to, over the longer term, really support it.
Every sector has their challenge when it comes to the longer-term Net Zero goal that we’re looking to achieve, and we’ll get there by 2050.
It is all these small steps that we’re making on that journey. Every ship class we bring out is roughly 30pc more efficient, and there are a lot of improvements we continuously bring. Even when we do bring the ships into dry dock, we bring in new technology that helps us really reduce our carbon footprint.
We make huge strides and every effort to operate really responsibly everywhere we go. We’ve got great support from the destinations we travel to. So, it’s hard to know what the future holds and what that could look like. It’s not a one-side solution; there’s no one solution.
