Tom Stieghorst
There’s been a
change in thinking over the past 10 to 12 years about where the prime
opportunity lies in the cruise industry; at least that’s been the case at Royal
Caribbean Cruises Ltd., according to its president.
Adam Goldstein gave a
presentation at the Cruise Shipping Miami convention in Miami Beach on behalf
of CLIA, where he serves as chairman and acting executive director.
The presentation
was an overview of the Asian cruise market, a hot topic at the convention.
Goldstein was
asked how Royal Caribbean got involved courting passengers in Asia, and he
replied that it was an outgrowth of the line’s original focus on taking North
American passengers there.
“What we realized
as an industry and as a company is that demand generation is greater by
cruising near where people live,” Goldstein said.
So rather than try
to profit from inducing Americans to take long, expensive trips halfway around
the world, cruise lines began to explore setting up offshore operations
instead.
“We’ve re-oriented
our main efforts in that direction, because that’s where the main business is,”
Goldstein said.
And it’s not just
in Asia. In retrospect, it is obvious that this is what has been happening
across lines and across regions. It began first in Europe, where some lines
that were acquired by North American companies brought native books of business
with them.
Today it is also
evident in Australia and Asia and is starting to emerge in South America. CLIA’s recently globalized structure reflects
the source market re-orientation by suppliers.
One implication of
this is that the interests of cruise suppliers are diverging from the North
American travel agent base. Once the two were synonymous. And North America
remains both the largest world market and an essential base for any line with
global aspirations.
But odds are the
cruise industry’s storied past is not going to look like its future. A
parochial industry with global reach is morphing into a multinational industry
with a local-market emphasis. It’s a big change.