Oceania boss: 'Middle East conflict could prompt more UK deployment'
Oceania Cruises’ boss has not ruled out the possibility of basing a ship in the UK “in the next few years” if conflict continues in the Middle East.
President Frank A. Del Rio told TTG he is bullish about the UK and its great potential following a restructure, which saw Jason Worth promoted to a new role of international sales vice-president last August.
Del Rio explained Oceania was now better placed to work with new agent partners in the UK, and was on “an upward trajectory” in the market.
“With a new strategy and approach, we’ve opened ourselves up a bit more to the UK agent community,” Del Rio said. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the pick-up of our business in the UK over the past six months. It’s a key market for us. We consider it to have great potential.”
In October last year, when the Israel-Hamas conflict began, Oceania was forced to cancel and then resell 24% of its overall capacity.
Del Rio described the situation as “a challenge”, but added: “We have the propulsion and steering to easily redirect our ships elsewhere and get the same amount of demand.”
When asked about the chances of Oceania having a UK-based ship in the future, Del Rio said: “As the brand grows, we look for more opportunities."
Del Rio continued: “Because of what happened in the Middle East last October, we find ourselves wanting to shift more deployment to western and northern Europe.
“Maybe in the next few years, you will see more dedicated UK deployment for longer periods of time.”
However, he added future UK deployment would be aimed at multiple source markets – not just British and Irish passengers – with the UK market currently sitting behind the US and Canada in terms of size, but ahead of Australia.
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