In fact, the buzz generated by Ikon has already led to greater booking attention across all brands through to 2028 and 2029, General Manager Sales & Marketing Anthony Laver told Cruise Weekly yesterday at the Luxury Travel Collection’s soiree event in Hong Kong.
“We are seeing greater interest in the Scenic-branded product; we are also seeing greater forward interest because Ikon is only one ship,” Laver explained.
“Ikon only has limited departures, and to be honest, scarcity creates value, FOMO creates value, and when we started selling out of the first departures, people started saying, ‘well, I want to get on’, so they are now already looking ahead to 2028 and 2029.”
While Laver said Ikon is the product of Scenic’s ethos of ‘continuous improvement’ and aims to take ultra-luxury sailing to another level, he clarified the new vessel is not competing with Eclipse I and Eclipse II, but will rather add strong support to the newly rebranded Scenic Discovery Yachts division.
Part of the rationale for Ikon was to create a ship that provided a better passenger experience in warmer waters, Laver explained.
“The Mediterranean was a bit of a gap for us.
“Eclipse I and Eclipse II were designed primarily as polar class, they had less pools outside for example for obvious reasons, but with Ikon there was a really great opportunity to take the design and reimagine it for warmer waters,” Laver added.
Another point of difference for Scenic’s growing class of Discovery Yachts is its ability to deliver luxury experiences across more modes of exploration.
“We joke about it but on [Eclipse I and II] it really is a fourdimensional experience,” Laver told CW.
“Guests are seeing the world from up above [in the helicopters], from below in the submarine, on the water with the Zodiacs and kayaks, and then they’re seeing it on land as well.
“There are very few companies who can deliver that 3D or 4D experience consistently all the time in most destinations.”
