Issues & Trends – August 2011
HANRAHAN HERE TO LISTEN TO AUSSIE AGENTS
Celebrity Cruises chief explains line’s ‘modern luXury’ positioning
DAN Hanrahan’s visit to Australia earlier this month was not prompted by an opportunity to cut a ribbon or speak at a conference.
The Miami-based president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises said he visited Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to talk with travel agents. He also spent some time in Canberra conferring with Australian Government officials.
Celebrity Cruises is about to make a big statement in the Australian market by positioning one of its top-of-the-line Solstice class ships here during the 2012/13 “wave season”.
And Hanrahan said he wanted to come here to explain personally to Australian travel agents exactly what is in store for them and their clients.
“In the past, we have not done as good a job as we could have communicating a clear and simple explanation of what Celebrity offers – our message has been too complicated,” he said.
So the line recently hired an agency to come up with a simpler, more forceful message.
Hanrahan said the elements that make up the Celebrity offering have now been distilled into two words – “Modern Luxury”.
As an aside he noted that graphic presentation of the tag line as “modern luXury” enables Celebrity to pay homage to its Chandris heritage – something which he believes the line should emphasise more.
Celebrity was founded by the iconic Greek shipping line before merging with Royal Caribbean, and Chandris ships were always instantly recognisable by the distinctive white X on their funnels.
Hanrahan believes the industry’s labelling of cruise lines as contemporary, premium or luxury can be confusing to the public. “So we are telling them that we offer a modern take on luxury.”
In a 10 minute power point present-ation to Australian agents Hanrahan stressed that Celebrity is in no way disparaging “traditional” luxury, simply identifying the niche that it fills.
He said his meetings with agents had enabled him to give them a clearer understanding of Celebrity and “to answer their questions and listen to what they had to say”.
“I’ve met a lot of really smart people and we are listening to them, along with the advice we get from our Australian (Royal Caribbean) sales and marketing organisation which does a great job. We certainly don’t believe that if it’s not invented in Miami it’s not any good.”
When the Solstice-class Celebrity Solstice is based here in 2012/13 Hanrahan expects Australians will comprise 35-40 per cent of its passengers.
There will be tweaking of the pro-duct to reflect this – for example Australian wines will be available.
But feedback from Australian passengers who have cruised on Celebrity vessels elsewhere in the
world suggests to him that not a lot of change will be required.
According to Hanrahan, Australian passengers give Celebrity cruises higher ratings than most other nationalities and this was a key factor – along with Australian cruise market growth and the strength of the Australian dollar – in the decision to position a Solstice class vessel here.
Celebrity Solstice’s 2013 appearance in Australian waters will follow Celebrity Century’s 2012 season and Hanrahan said we can expect to see annual deployment of a Celebrity ship here for the foreseeable future.
“We have previously positioned a ship in Australia every other year, assuming that the sourcing of passengers would rely heavily on international markets,” he said.
“But we can now count on 35-40 per cent Australian guests and we have the confidence to come year after year.”
• Royal Caribbean is clearly aiming for a “softly softly”, rather than a confrontational, approach to lobbying the Australian Government.
Speaking to travelBulletin ahead of his visit to Canberra, he said: “I think it’s important to make myself available to local and national government.
“The cruise industry is still quite young in Australia but we can demonstrate that we add value to the economy. It is incumbent on us to do a better job telling our story.”