Issues & Trends – Mar 2010
P&O UK looks to Australia to fill doubled 2012 World Voyages program
P&O Cruises UK will ramp up its presence in the Australian market with a new dedicated local website and release its World Voyages’ program at the same time it is launched in Britain. The program for the 2012 season will now go on sale in July, rather than November, giving agents and passengers the same access as their UK counterparts to early booking deals and other offers.
P&O Cruises’ managing director Carol Marlow said Australian bookings for the 2011 World Voyages program have increased by 200 per cent over last year, a result that has convinced the line to put more focus on this market. The company has also set a target of 60 per cent more business for 2012.
Marlow, who until last July headed up Cunard Line, said Australian business had been steady for several years, making up about 10 per cent of all World Voyages’ sales.
However, she says, new itineraries and a record visit to Australia by three P&O Cruises’ ships next season (2010/2011) will increase the program’s appeal Down Under.
“We are now very keen to boost the Australian market and promote the product here,” she said. “We expect the Australian market share to be 12 per cent by 2012.”
The new website, which will be a local version of the UK site featuring AUD prices, is scheduled to be up and running by the end of March, while the Portunus loyalty club will also be overhauled with dedicated promotions for Australians.
The new Australian focus was foreshadowed during last month’s visit by Marlow’s boss, Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle (travelBulletin, February). He said P&O UK has been very successful in selling the three-month world voyages in the past, but it is now time to boost the Australian market, which he believes has strong potential with early retirees.
P&O will be aiming to fill four World Voyages in 2010/2011 as opposed to two voyages this season, and it will gear up for another four world voyages in 2012.
P&O has traditionally operated two ships simultaneously on world voyages. This year Arcadia and Aurora are circling the globe, and Marlow travelled briefly on both ships between Australian ports earlier this month. Those ships will be joined by Oriana and Artemis in a new longer season that will begin in September this year and run until April 2011. Artemis, however, won’t call at Australia.
Marlow said a similar program using four ships will operate in 2012, with brochures to be released in July.
She said the market for the traditional three-month long world cruise was growing in the UK, although Australians tended to book sectors and “line voyages”, which are the classic 44-day legs between Australia and England.
There are 800 and 1000 passengers currently undertaking the entire world cruise on Aurora and Arcadia respectively, and 1500 passengers have booked the entire voyage on Aurora next year.
Marlow said Australians may be tempted by the new 2010/11 itineraries, which give them an opportunity to sail on two different ships in two different directions and spend Christmas in the UK.
In a totally revamped program, Oriana will depart Southampton in September this year and arrive in Australia in November. It will then leave Sydney on November 5 for a 43-night line voyage back to the UK via Asia and the Suez Canal.
Australians can then spend three weeks in the UK/Europe and then board Arcadia on January 5, 2011 for the cruise back home via the Caribbean, Panama Canal and the Pacific.
Alternatively they can board Aurora, which departs Southampton on January 9, 2011 and cruises home via South America.
Marlow said P&O Cruises’ strengths were its heritage and the traditional “Britishness” of the product, evidenced by its strong repeat factor of 60 per cent. However, she said the company needed to differentiate itself from the local P&O operation as many Australians did not realise they were two distinct entities.
“Our passengers love the P&O tradition, and there is a following here by people who know us. But we have to broaden that. We must clearly establish our presence,” she said.
They identified the key P&O features as the sense of “special occasion” cruising, the traditional nautical flav-our, friendly crew and a British style that gave people a feeling of “coming home”.
She conceded, however, that P&O’s food had previously had a poor reputation. “And rightly so,” she said, “the British are not known for their cuisine.”
However, she said the company has invested “quite a lot of money” surveying passengers about food and had devised new menus that included more healthy dishes and seafood. P&O has also embraced the celebrity-chef restaurant trend and now operated four such restaurants on three ships, overseen by renowned British chefs Gary Rhodes, Marco Pierre White and Atul Kochhar.
P&O is also diversifying its product. Two ships, Arcadia and Artemis are child-free; the 116,000-ton Ventura, launched in 2008, is geared to the family market, while its twin sister the new Azura, to be launched in April this year, will see a return to the “classical heartland of P&O cruising” with emphasis on ballroom dancing and afternoon tea.
Artemis will leave the fleet in April next year, and will be replaced by a small ship, the 30,300 ton Royal Princess in May 2011, which will be re-christened Adonia.
Marlow said the addition of Adonia, which carries just 710 passengers, follows requests for a smaller ship.
P&O’s average passenger age is 58, with one-third under the age of 54.
In other moves Australians will also be offered fly-cruise deals for P&O’s shorter cruises in the Mediterranean.
– Caroline Gladstone