One On One: Ted Sykes, President Of American Queen Steamboat Company
by James Shillinglaw /Sykes: “We’re actively looking for another vessel right now.”
River cruising continues to be one of the hottest segments of the travel industry, with most of the attention centered on European rivers. But we often forget we have some of the greatest rivers here in America, with the Mississippi being the largest and most popular.
For the past four years, American Queen Steamboat Company has been sailing the Mississippi and other rivers in the Midwest and South with the 436-passenger American Queen, the largest passengers steamboat afloat. In 2014, the company also began offering cruises on Columbia and Snake rivers in the Pacific Northwest with the 223-passenger American Express. We spoke with Ted Sykes, president and chief operating officer of American Queen, about the company’s plans for the current season as well as the future.
How's business so far this year?
Excellent! We're strong on both the Columbia and the Snake Rivers and on the Mississippi. We were essentially sold out for February, March, April, and May, and have a few openings in June for the American Queen on the Mississippi. And this August we are introducing the Mighty Mississippi, a 23-day cruise all the way from St. Paul to New Orleans, with a pre-trip that starts at Lake Itasca. We’ll sail the reverse itinerary from New Orleans all the way back up to St. Paul in September. On American Empress we are sold out during several months, though we do have a few months where we have some openings. But we are convinced we will sail full and we’re way ahead of our booking curves.
"We give them the best pricing, we book onboard, and we credit the booking back to the travel agent, so it becomes an annuity for them."
What's new for 2016 beyond the Mighty Mississippi itinerary?
One new itinerary is Five Rivers, which sails the Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, and Mississippi. We are also doing our Bourbon cruise again, which highlights Kentucky where 95% of the bourbon is produced in five counties. We bring on the current president and son of the founder of Maker's Mark and we’ll have two or three other bourbon manufacturers and a lot of small-batch bourbon manufacturers. We're also doing behind-the-scenes tours and we're taking guests to dinner at Col. Sanders' wife’s house.
We're also have our Civil Wars cruises, as well as our Elvis cruise with Elvis Presley Enterprises, which we've done in the past. In July we're doing a Presidents and Politics cruise during the week that the presidential conventions are scheduled. Mark Russell, the political satirist, is doing lectures and we’re having other lecturers from the University of Virginia. They won’t focus on the current political campaign but on the history of the presidency. Also new this year is Music for America, a cruise between Memphis and Nashville, which will highlight country, blues and gospel. On the American Empress we're doing wine-themed cruises that go beyond our Lewis & Clark theme. We’ll feature wines from the Willamette Valley and we’ve got wine growers from Washington and Oregon State presenting to our customers.
What’s new physically on your boats and what’s to come?
This year we finished painting American Queen with two-part polyurethane, a yacht-like white paint. We also did all the rails in mahogany, which makes it much more elegant, and we’ve refinished all the mahogany doors. We’ve redone the top Deck Six with indoor and outdoor carpeting. For the future, when we have enough time to fit it in, we want to install bolded decking, the high-quality teak lookalike that you’ll find on luxury lines.
Next year we will be adding luxury suites. We’re going to take four cabins on the top deck and combine them with their adjoining cabins. They will have private balconies, chaise lounges, and butler service. So we’ll have four new luxury or family suites and two owner’s suites. We are also looking at plans to create an indoor-outdoor River Grill in the stern on American Queen, offering very high-end fixed menu regional cuisine. It will be a reservations-only dining venue but with no additional charge. Then we’ll have enough capacity to turn our main J.M. White restaurant into open seating. We’ll have three dining venues with the J.M. White dining room, the Front Porch, and the River Grill.
American Queen will get new luxury suites and a new restaurant next year.
Are you seeking to add another ship anytime soon?
We’re actively looking for another vessel right now. We’ve got our sights on three or four vessels, but we’re looking for something for the Great Lakes and coastal sailings. Since there are no more iconic vessels like American Queen and American Empress, we are looking at what’s available, but we’re also looking at a newbuild as well. It will be a different configuration, but the hotel and the cruise product will be what we deliver here.
Our hallmarks are really dining, entertainment, and shore excursions. So it’s five-star dining, high-end entertainment, and included shore excursions as part of our brand promise. We have these four motorcoaches that travel with us down the Mississippi and we have three on the Columbia and the Snake rivers. We’ll do the same on the Great Lakes and coastal cruises.
What’s going on in terms of your marketing to travel agents this year?
If we have available space 45 days prior to a cruise, we open it up to fam trips for agents. We need to get them familiar with the product. Our big struggle, because of the checkered history of American river cruising, has been name recognition and awareness. We also have completely reconfigured our website and we have a travel agent portal where agents can get all the marketing materials they need. We will actually mail customizable Slim Jims to their list for them. As long as we have satisfied customers, this becomes an annuity for travel agents, because they get a good commission and we help them significantly with their marketing.
Is there any chance you’ll establish any partnerships with major agency groups?
We’re looking again at the consortia. Signature Travel Network was the only one we joined, but that came to an end right after I joined the company. We’ve hired Bob Salmon as vice president of sales and he believes we should have relationships with consortia. By the same token we wouldn’t mind, as we grow the business, to reinforce those relationships.
Is there anything else you can think of you that want to tell travel agents?
We have a unique loyalty program that we think is the best in the industry. What the loyalty program does is keep customers coming back for more. We call it the Steamboat Society of America. We give them the best pricing, we book onboard, and we credit the booking back to the travel agent, so it becomes an annuity for them. As part of the loyalty program, we have the ability for past guests to visit the vessel when it’s in any non-turnaround port. So we encourage travel agents to go with their past guests and make more bookings. They can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner in a non-turnaround port.