Celebrity chief tackles 'big myth large ships aren't luxurious'
Celebrity Cruises is working to “own the ‘new luxury’ space” and tackle a lack of consumer knowledge around the cruise sector’s high-end product, according to EMEA chief Jo Rzymowska.
Speaking at the TTG Luxury Travel Summit at the Biltmore Mayfair on Monday (18 October), Rzymowska told delegates “one of the big myths” facing the cruise sector was that ships could not be large and also luxurious.
Challenging that notion, she told TTG Luxury editor April Hutchinson: “People get it with hotels and they understand large hotel concepts and understand they will offer luxury in every sense of the word, and ships do it as well.
“Yes, there are ultra-luxury ships, but it’s a fact you can have a large ship and offer incredible, luxurious service.”
Rzymowska said Celebrity had used the pandemic to spend more time evaluating its brand and how consumers and trade partners perceive the line.
“We wanted to take the time to know what’s important to our consumers and travel partners so they understand Celebrity is a luxury brand – and they gave us a lot of good feedback.”
Rzymowska said after consulting with agents, a concierge team was launched in the line’s contact centre and initiatives were introduced, such as the recently launched Celebrity Rewards scheme allowing agents to give their customers personalised gifts.
“We want to start to own that ‘new luxury’ space,” she added. “What’s really important is understanding the importance of what the Celebrity brand stands for. It’s a challenge the cruise industry has more than the hotel industry.
When you mention hotel brands people can build a picture in their minds, whereas with a lot of cruise brands people can’t. That’s why it’s important that people understand there is a cruise for everyone out there and it’s important to understand what we stand for.”
Rzymowska said for Celebrity it was about promoting its “modernity and design innovations” to luxury customers.
“Working with architects and designers who haven’t worked on cruise ships before – that’s a key part of our philosophy.”
She said the same approach was used for how Celebrity attracted new guests.
“We pride ourselves on diversity and inclusion and we want all of our guests – no matter who they are or where they come from – to be treated exactly the same as everybody else.”
Describing Celebrity’s journey to up its diversity, Rzymowska said the line had grown from having only 2% of onboard officers being female to its current figure of 28%.
She paid tribute to Royal Caribbean Group’s male allies for helping drive the change and urged businesses to “make sure everyone is embracing it” when they enact new diversity and inclusion policies.
Looking ahead, Rzymowska said Celebrity would have its entire 14-ship operating by the middle of next year – with 10 vessels back sailing by the end of 2021.
She encouraged delegates to “be proud” of how they had adapted to the challenges of the past 18 months and “take all the good things we’ve learned” going forward to create more resilience throughout the travel sector.
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