Teri West
A lot has changed since I sat down with Celestyal Cruises chief commercial officer Lee Haslett in Miami earlier this month.
At the time, Celestyal's fleet was still stuck in the Persian Gulf. As other cruise executives at the Seatrade Cruise Global conference talked about the industry's resilience against surging oil prices, Haslett spoke about Celestyal's resilience amidst the largest shutdown of a cruise line's operations since Covid.
Celestyal's ships have since made it through the Strait of Hormuz, finally able to proceed toward their spring and summer schedule in the Mediterranean.
Even before then, Haslett spoke optimistically about Celestyal's future, and it was clear that the cruise line's relationship with U.S. travel advisors was a reason why.
The cruise line has two ships, neither of which sail from U.S. homeports, but Haslett described North America as Celestyal's most important market "where we've strategically invested the most."
To grow business in the U.S., including after it started winter Arabia cruises in 2024-25, Celestyal has organized and hosted fam trips that included American advisors. It relaunched its advisor training program in December with a tiered certification process and new rewards for advisors who participate.
It scheduled calls with trade media about what it was doing to deepen its relationship with the advisor community, and come Wave season, it shared statistics that demonstrated booming sales.
"We've just come off of our best Wave campaign," Haslett said. "We're 55% up over the previous year. And the support that we have from travel advisors is just brilliant."
I asked him how Celestyal is ensuring that it maintains that progress and support from agencies in a challenging time.
"The single most important thing for us, which I say to the team all the time … is just be great partners," he said.
Even as the Celestyal ships sat in limbo, he hinted at initiatives in the pipeline to build upon Celestyal's engagement with agencies in the U.S., including more fam trips and educational tools.
"You're only going to see us be more active, grow more," he said.