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New Royal Caribbean sales director targets land-based competition

Aaron Langford Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean’s senior sales director, UK & Ireland, Aaron Langford said the line is ready to challenge land-based operators following the success of Utopia of the Seas in the new-to-cruise market

Speaking to Cruise Trade News, Langford revealed that the trade will be key to getting land-based holidaymakers on the Royal Caribbean fleet in 2025 and beyond.

“We are the pinnacle of what a cruise line is,” Langford said. “We offer outstanding service, experience, destination and hardware within the cruise category. We’ve completed that and now we’re moving into competing with land-based holiday markets.

“From a UK perspective, it’s moving from 2.2 million passengers toward 40 million holidaymakers. To put it into context, one point of share shift into that market equates to eight Oasis-class ships of passengers. If you start moving the needle a little bit the rewards start to come pretty quick.”

The line has already made strides toward competing in the land-based market following the launch of its latest Oasis class ship, Utopia of the Seas, in Orlando last July. Langford said the ship’s shorter three- and four-night itineraries have appealed to new-to-cruise customers, both in the UK and overseas.

When asked if this was part of Royal Caribbean’s strategy or if it was simply a happy accident, Langford replied: “It was 100 per cent the formula.”

He continued: “If you look at the average cruise length for Royal Caribbean versus any other cruise line over the last ten years, ours has been coming down as our proportion of new-to-cruise guests have been going up.

“If you offer short cruises then you offer an opportunity for people to take a tester and that’s an entry point to the brand and to cruise generally. The way I see Utopia of the Seas is it’s the newest resort in Orlando. That’s how trade partners should be thinking about it.”

“Time for something different”

Langford was speaking to Cruise Trade News following the recent unveiling of a new trade incentive scheme, which gives agents the chance to earn up to £500 per booking. According to Langford, the decision to increase the trade’s earning potential will feed into the line’s new strategic direction.

“We felt it was the right time to start thinking about something different that aligns with what we want to achieve in the future.

“We’re not the cheapest cruise brand out there and for good reason, so coming out with a programme that allows us to put our money where our mouth is while utilising the trade to get us into that mainstream holiday environment was really important.

“We want to say ‘we appreciate you and we value the hard work that you do for our brand’. We’re going on a journey that’s going to take us to places we haven’t been yet and once we figure that out, we want to pay you well for it.”

As Royal Caribbean looks to make strides into the land-based sector, will that mean an increased focus on agents who work beyond the cruise market?

“I think that’ll be a natural progression. If you’re asking me if we will prioritise those types of agents, then that’s not going to be the game.

“Each individual agent gives us a unique opportunity to explore. Some agents are better at selling land-based holidays than others, but you also have cruise specialists. That journey for them is going to be a different journey to someone who sells a lot of land-based packages.

“At the end of the day, you still need to do the work and get agents to come on a journey with you in order to get over the hurdles of why maybe, in the land-based world, customers haven’t chosen a cruise-based option.”

Summer in Scotland Royal Caribbean
At a recent roadshow series in Scotland, the Royal Caribbean team met with more than 400 trade partners in four days

What are the misconceptions around cruise that might be preventing land-based holidaymakers from booking with Royal Caribbean?

“One of the biggest things is the perception of value. People don’t really understand the value you get on a cruise, so I think if you’ve not done it before you might think it’s expensive. You might not think it’s a good gamble if you’re trying something new.

“We need to do a better job of conveying to trade partners the value piece in terms of what you get on a cruise, particularly with Royal Caribbean. People want to know when they pay for something that they’re getting the best value.

“On Icon of the Seas, for example, you’ve got 21 different restaurants and half of those are included. It’s a full board experience with entertainment. You get to visit private destinations and get to go to new places every day.”

On the subject of reaching more agents, you and the team were recently up in Scotland hosting a series of roadshow events. Why was now the right time to target this market?

“We’ve just expanded the field sales team to get more coverage in England and we felt like we wanted to do a similar outreach in Scotland given the importance of the region and the history we have there.

“Part of the feedback I picked up on is that doing these intense programmes, where me and my team go and spend a lot time in a particular area for a week or so, is really valuable in terms of energy, time and money.

“The field sales team do a great job going store to store but having a collective group of agents come and listen to the brand, have an opportunity to ask questions and give feedback is super important. We bottle that information up and take action from that to make it easier for us to do business with.”

Finally, with Wave 2025 fast approaching, are you able to share any information on how you’ll be working with agents during that period?

“We’re planning some pretty cool stuff. Wave for us is going to be more exciting from us than what we’ve seen in recent years.

“Obviously, we’ve had the amplification of Allure of the Seas – which has seen a $130m revamp of the ship – so there’ll be some stuff around that.

“We have trade engagement in mind with everything we do. We recently had the Eurovision announcement in terms of where that’s going to be next year and that’ll play a big part in our wave activations, particularly with the trade given the success of last year.”

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