Issues & Trends – July 2011

3000 EXTRA WORLD CRUISE BERTHS IN 2013 – but P&O, Cunard say they can grow demand for additional capacity

By Caroline Gladstone

WORLD cruise operators P&O UK and Cunard Line are confident they can reap a big slice of the growing Australian cruise market with their just-released programs for 2013.

The lines, owned by Carnival Corp, will each have three ships in these waters in February-March 2013, representing an additional 3000 berths over their voyages of recent years.

But despite the huge capacity hike, both operators say they are confident they can grow the Australian market even more, while the new itineraries will continue to attract both lines’ main market, the British.

The P&O trio will include the newest ship Azura, which at 3100 passengers is the largest in the fleet. Its arrival in Australia/New Zealand in early 2013, along with sister ships Arcadia and Aurora, will increase P&O’s capacity in the region by around 23 per cent over 2011 and 2012.

Sydney will benefit most from the P&O bonanza, hosting all three ships in the one week beginning with Aurora’s arrival on February 22, followed by Azura for an overnight stay on February 25 and finishing with Arcadia on February 27, in what the line is calling its “Triple A” summer.

P&O Cruises’ managing director Carol Marlow believes Azura’s voyage will sell well in the Australian market. Speaking via a teleconference from London, she noted many Australians have already cruised on the new ship in the Mediterranean and Europe.

“We think the growth from Australia will be larger than the 23 per cent growth in our capacity,” she said.

While Marlow declined to give passenger numbers, she said Australians account for about 10 per cent of passengers on P&O’s world cruises.

“We want to grow this number and we think in 2013 we can with the extra liner voyages, and the many north-bound sectors, which Australians are interested in,” she said.

P&O says its 2013 world cruise program (which went on sale in Australia on July 13, a day ahead of other markets) is the biggest world cruise program ever launched.

It comprises the three ships that will call at Australia and New Zealand, together with the smaller ship Adonia, which will undertake an 87-night voyage of South America and the Caribbean from Southampton.

Australians will have the choice of 18 line voyages between the UK and Australia/New Zealand and numerous sectors including the 13-night sailing from Singapore to Melbourne (from $1949) on Azura and the 24-night itinerary from Sydney to San Francisco on Arcadia from $4199.

Early booking deals of 10 per cent apply up until December 31, 2011, while agents taking ‘select sailings’ can earn an additional 10 per cent if they book their group by the end of the year as well. Onboard spending credits are offered for early bookers.

While Cunard will also boost its capacity in these waters with three ships in 2013, only Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria will visit Australia.

New Zealand, however, which impressed Cunard president Peter Shanks when he visited there aboard Queen Elizabeth in February, will be on the itinerary of all three vessels, including Elizabeth.

Shanks, speaking alongside Marlow by teleconference from London, said he was impressed by New Zealand’s beauty and the warm welcome the ship received at each port, despite the country having just been hit by an earthquake. Shanks said the company wanted to do something for New Zealand in return.

The big news in the program is the first circumnavigation of New Zealand, which will be operated by the flagship Queen Mary 2. The 12-night cruise will call at Auckland, Bay of Islands, Wellington, Milford Sound and Christchurch, and lead in at $3329.

Shanks said the decision to add this to the program was also inspired by the huge sales of Queen Mary 2’s circumnavigation of Australia in 2012.

He also expects the New Zealand roundtrip to be a big hit with the British, and predicts the numbers for the Kiwi circumnavigation will be better than those achieved for the Australian circumnavigation.

Like Marlow, Shanks was uncon-cerned by the extra capacity; he said Cunard knew what the “market could bear”.

“We sit in a unique position, in that we tend to get strong and early demand. We’re managing to turn a ‘love affair’ (with the Australian market), into a relationship,” he said. Australians currently make up 11 per cent of Cunard’s business.

Meanwhile, both Marlow and Shanks said they welcomed the recent announcement of a government-ordered review into sharing Sydney’s Garden Island with the cruise industry.

Marlow said none of P&O’s ships could fit under the harbour bridge, while more and more large ships were headed Down Under making an alternative site a pressing concern.

Shanks said QM2’s berthing at Garden Island during her three visits had been very successful and said the review (to be lead by a former defence department secretary with results to be delivered by the end of the year) was timely.