Crystal recently said it will change the use of its Boeing 777 from air tours to custom charter flights. The tours were one of a stable of new luxury products announced by Crystal after its acquisition by Genting Hong Kong in 2015. Crystal CEO and president Edie Rodriguez spoke with senior editor Tom Stieghorst about the decision to change the format.
Q: Crystal's air tour product has been discontinued. What happened?
Edie Rodriguez
A: I don't think "discontinued" is the right word. What happened was we just had tremendous demand for a charter model. We were getting a lot of requests from groups that wanted to do their own thing. Eighty-four seats is 42 couples, and the world is getting wealthier. They want to curate their own customized itineraries.
Q: What was the demand for what you had presented to the market?
A: The demand was good, it was very good. We started small and slow with just a limited number of departures because we did say from day one we wanted to test the waters. The demand was good, but we just figured this was a better alternative based on the requests we were getting.
Q: Can you say how many tours were sold?
A: A lot. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but it was pretty good. It's a pretty penny to reimburse and do the right thing by all of those people. So we felt that was a worthwhile investment. The agents are happy with us. The guests that were affected seemed happy and understanding. So far, so good.
Q: Was it more than 150 tours?
A: I don't think the number is [as] relevant as much as the demand for what we have the potential to do on a totally customized nature when people want it, vs. saying, 'Well, you can't go that week because we have our own tour scheduled.' It's different than when you're chartering a ship.
Q: So the product wasn't as customizable as it needed to be?
A: It was customizable the way we structured it, once you accepted one of our tours. On a 28-day itinerary we had 93 options. And the 94th option was we would customize whatever you wanted for an additional price. But what was happening is you were locked into our itinerary, our dates. And that doesn't work for a lot of wealthy people [who] can only go when they want to go. As an example, we had a very heavily booked wine regions of the world tour. There were many other requests that came and said, "We're our own wine group, we want to do it to these places and on these dates." Well, then you have to charter it. That's sort of the genesis of the charter model, the requests we kept getting.
Q: The agents have sold this $150,000 product, and now they have to go to the clients and say it's not going to happen. Does this present any credibility issues for Crystal?
A: I don't think so. I think our agents support us. They know we are very well financially backed and we have their best interests at heart. I said all along it's a perpetual evolution. Will there be tweaking here and there? Absolutely.
Q: If you take away the air charter part, does this remove some of the rationale for Crystal being a luxury lifestyle brand, not just a cruise line?
A: No, I don't think so. We have our cruises, our river cruises, our yacht expeditions. In April 2015, we launched Crystal Luxury Air, our 12-seat Bombardier, so we still have our charter air in that space. When we launch our first new [ocean cruise ship] in 2022, we will have Crystal Residences. So I still think we differentiate ourselves from the traditional cruise-only kind of company.
Q: What's happening with the residences?
A: We will begin selling them in December. The second floor of our art deco heritage building [in Miami], when we open it in December, will be a showcase center. We will show what the residences will look like. We already have a wait list of past guests of over 200 people. I feel reasonably certain they will sell out rather quickly.