Azamara’s Dondra Ritzenthaler on Maintaining a Pipeline of New Cruisers

While many cruise lines are looking at how to bring down the average age of their passengers, Azamara Cruises isn’t. It’s not necessary, the line’s new president and CEO Dondra Ritzenthaler told TMR during the President’s Sailing onboard Azamara Journey in the Southern Caribbean.

“Somewhere between 50 to 70 is our sweet spot,” she said, adding that she has no plans to strategically go after people in their 30s or 40s.  “We think that for this 50 to 70, for what we really promise and deliver, it’s really great for that audience.”

Part of Ritzenthaler’s reasoning is because of where Azamara Cruises fits into the scheme of the cruise industry.

She added that the average length of an Azamara cruise (12 nights, though the line is adding more seven-night options), which also appeals to cruisers who have the time, and want that more in-depth experience that Azamara promises. Generally speaking, that’s an older audience – and, as Ritzenthaler joked with us, if there’s one thing we’re always going to do, it’s get older.

“Where we come into the business is we don’t get as many first-to-cruise, but we get a lot of first-to-brand because people decide they love cruising, but now they want a smaller ship, and they want to go more authentic into the destinations. And that’s when the travel advisors say, well wait a minute, I got the brand for you,” she said.

In fact, this pipeline of new-to-brand is growing. New-to-brand used to account for 20% of Azamara’s passengers. Now they account for almost 50%.

With all that said, another demographic that Ritzenthaler told us is growing is the multi-gen family with grandparents, parents, and grandkids. That is bringing the average age down, though only slightly.

“We don’t get many [kids],” Ritzenthaler said, adding the Azamara ships don’t have kids clubs.

“That’s not what we do,” she said.