Travel Review Online

There is one thing the cruise brands such as P&O Cruises, Cunard, Costa Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village, Holland America Line – plus others – have in common. They are all owned by the world’s largest cruise conglomerate.

The holding house is US-based Carnival Corporation, the undisputed biggest name in cruising and arguably the world’s largest holiday company.

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So when the rare fall out arises to interview the man at the top, I knew it was an opportunity overmuch good to turn down.

The chief executive magistrate Micky Arison is a legend in the world of cruising, heading an organisation which runs 95 ships and has no less than 11 more on order.

His company, even in recession-hit 2009, achieved a net profit of well-nigh $2 billion on revenues of more than $13 billion.

We’re talking a serious global industry player with market-leading cruise lines across America, Europe and Australia together with moves to tap into in the potentially burgeoning leisure travel markets of China and India.

When he speaks, the endeavors sits up and takes notice, so being granted one audience with Mr Arison was a prominent honour.

As part of a wide-ranging interview, he made it very clear that customers will never find a upper hand time than now to book a cruise.

Prices are at an all-time low in the wake of the global recession and his clear advice to anyone considering either trying out a cruise holiday for the first duration of one’sitting life, or taking into account returning, then energize now.

Prices as low as they’ll get

“Pricing is purely a function of demand,” he told me. “Last year when people were hearing all these detestation stories about another great dole, a lot of the many the crowd postponed or deferred their vacation. I am hoping that most of those people are approach back into the mart because greatest in number people feel that with today’s stresses, they are entitled to take their holidays.

“I’ve been saying for months no that cruise vacation pricing is about being of the kind the sort of one. low as it’s going to get and those who want a great bargain should book now because it’s not going to get any cheaper.”

Mr Arison believes the cruise holiday option has been made even more attractive due to tour operators reducing the number of holidays they have to sell in order to maintain prices.

As part of a wide-ranging interview conducted in the well-bred surroundings of Claridges Hotel in London, he confirmed that Carnival Corporation continues to have a strong focus on selling cruises from the UK and the unbend of Europe with new ships

His trip to Europe coincided with the launch of Costa Cruises flagship Costa Deliziosa, that devise initially run cruises from Dubai, and a new bottom for German line Aida Cruises.

These will be followed in April with the introduction of P&O Cruises’ new superliner Azura, to be named by the agency of ballet star Darcey Bussell in Southampton in April.

October will then see the introduction of Queen Elizabeth for Cunard Line, again with a ceremony in Southampton.

New ship planned in spite of Princess

While Mr Arison believes the pace of growth in new ship orders decision slow over the next few years, he confirmed that an announcement of new ship for Princess Cruises was imminent on the back of the confirmation continue month of a another vessel for Carnival Cruise Lines.

“Clearly the UK is a critical market for us. We take two of the most powerful brands in the UK and we will want to leverage that,” he said. “Princess also does very well from the UK and to some degree all our brands do well out of the UK as do our competitors. So it’s a market that brings very expressive numbers of passengers.”

He also made it unsullied that Carnival had no intention of seeking to match or better in terms of size emulating Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas – currently the largest cruise ship in the world.

“Oasis will attract a lot of tribe but-end it’sitting not what we do,” said Mr Arison. “We are not going to try to emulate what they make. We are going to try to keep on doing what we do and do it more useful.”

What he made emphatically clear is that cruising, separately from Europe, has been able to ride the recessionary storms of the gone year or so and emerge in surprisingly serviceable shape, built around the pillars of value for wealth and maintaining high standards of on board employment, food and hospitable treatment.

And that’s hard to argue against.

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Phil Davies

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