Princess Cruises has no plans to follow Cunard, Virgin Voyages and Disney Cruise Line out of Australia, saying it is “absolutely committed as the oldest cruise line now operating in Australia”.
Speaking to travelBulletin at the NZCA conference in Napier this week, newly minted Princess Cruises Vice President Asia-Pacific, Matthew Rutherford, said the line is even looking to expand in the local market.
“We’ve got a depth of passengers that love the brand, so we’re still looking to be here and expand when we can.
“We just want to work with our stakeholders on getting our operating costs realistic and it’s not just New Zealand, it’s Sydney [too] and it’s another area we’re going to work on,” he added.
Rutherford said there are developments in the pipeline on how both Princess Cruises and cruise lines in general aim to work better and more efficiently with port authorities and regulatory bodies around the region.
Addressing delegates at the NZCA conference, Rutherford urged New Zealand to pay close attention to how Japan operates its cruising sector as a potential source of knowledge, as the country deals with a range of regulatory issues.
Princess last week unveiled its biggest-ever Japan season, which will run from Mar-Dec 2027 and feature Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess.
Rutherford said there were several helpful takeaways for New Zealand as it relates to Japan, particularly with operating costs.
“For cost side, I mean, it’s just low, it’s substantially low, five times lower – it’s not even in the ballpark of this region,” Rutherford stressed.
“And it’s not just the big ports – the little mum and pop ports – everyone’s out there competing for business.
“So what’s different is that they’re all incentivising cruise to come and they see the value of tourism to their economy, and they’re all working really hard to get the tourists into their region, to benefit from it, and then the government is over the top, guiding the process, making sure everyone wins,” Rutherford said.
“It’s fair, equal, it’s a very collaborative approach to growing cruise tourism, and then talking about growing cruise tourism, we just added another ship to our deployment.
“It’ll be the biggest Japan season ever done, and Princess will be the biggest brand operating out of Japan.”
