Cruising is back – with CruiseWorld Asia 2022 held in-person in
Singapore for the first time in three years and cruise line leaders in
Asia urging their travel agent customers to embrace digital, given the
acceleration in digital consumer behaviour during the pandemic.
This shift to online is happening even with the older generation
travellers, said Michael Goh, president, Resorts World Cruises. “You
have to understand consumer behaviour and work with cruise lines to
target different segments – you cannot do things the same way.”
Angie Stephen, vice president, Asia Pacific, Royal Caribbean
International, asked the travel agents in the audience to think about
everything differently, including how they structure and manage their
teams.
“People now want to work flexible hours. People are not buying from 9
to 5, Monday to Friday, I never understood that model. People want to
work from anywhere and customers are dreaming and shopping digitally.
Think of using new channels like WhatsApp for sales, for example.”
Their calls were reinforced by a study done by Milieu Insight, a
Singapore-based research firm that polled 1,000 consumers in four
markets, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.
The study, which was specially commissioned for CruiseWorld Asia to
shed light on consumer travel preferences including cruising, showed a
high dominance of social media, travel booking platforms and search
engines in where consumers were shopping and planning.
To the question, “what sources do they use to plan a trip”, “travel
agencies” were ranked sixth, after social media, travel-related
blogs/websites, search engines, travel booking platforms and friends and
family.
As for where they look for deals and promos, “travel agencies” also
ranked sixth with social media ranking number one and travel booking
platforms like Agoda and Klook coming in second.
Stephen Tracy, COO of Milieu Insight, shared consumer travel preferences across Southeast Asia's key markets during CruiseWorld Asia 2022.
The good news, said Stephen Tracy, COO of Milieu Insight, is that the
desire to cruise is high and travel agents had a golden opportunity to
convert those who say they have no intention to cruise, given the high
air fares and complications around travel at this moment.
“It gives agents a huge addressable market. But the path to purchase
is not linear. You must know your market segment and use good data to
know how each segment behaves.”
RCCL’s Stephen said that having served five million guests since it
restarted operations last year, the cruise line has seen distinct
changes in customer behaviour.
“Consumers have shifted from spending on goods to experiences.
There’s never been a better time to be in cruise and travel. People are
spending 30% more on their cruises, buying balconies, suites and
bringing more friends and family.”
Overall, the industry in Asia saw more first-time cruisers given
cruising was one of the first to start operating domestically in markets
like Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. And they are getting
younger, said Goh, and “this group is highly active on social media,
which is good for us, they are spreading the fun of cruising”.
Stephen said one factor in cruising’s favour right now is that travel
is still complicated with varying degrees of restrictions and air fares
are high. “It’s a good time to tell your customers that cruises are
hassle-free and easy. They just board a ship in Singapore, and they are
good to go.”
Goh said it was seeing shorter lead times and Resorts World has seen a
huge increase in the MICE market, with its ships handling groups of
between 400 and 600, as well as weddings.
Stephen said the strongest demand right now was for its 12-night
cruises to Japan. That it’s Japan is not surprising given the pent-up
demand for this popular destination but that it’s a 12-night cruise is,
because usually the Asian market likes shorter cruises.
Royal Caribbean International also did its first call back to Phuket
this week, and Thailand as well as Vietnam are seeing strong bookings.
Goh said Resorts World was seeing good demand for its shorter
two-three up to five-day cruises to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia,
and it was offering combined Bali/Thailand as well as Malaysia/Thailand
cruises.
Meanwhile, Norwegian Cruise Line, which will return to Asia in
2023/2024 with the Norwegian Jewel, is offering a whole slew of cruises,
from short to long, to quick to immersive.
“After three years of lockdowns, and with 30 million guests cruising a
year – that’s 90 million who haven’t cruised – there’s something for
everybody,” said Braydon Holland, senior director sales for Asia,
Norwegian Cruise Line.
Stephen said the future is bright for Asia – it’s the last penetrated
market for cruising – and RCCL is betting big on the region. She said
2023 would be the “biggest, most profitable year for agents working with
RCCL”.
Goh said, “We are so optimistic for 2023, given the booking trends we
are seeing, and I am particularly excited about luxury cruising. Our
Palace suites are selling extremely well.”