Carnival Corp. Brings Back Bob Dickinson

by Andrew Sheivachman and Marilee Crocker June 10, 2013

Carnival Corp. is bringing back cruise icon Bob Dickinson, former Carnival Cruise line president and CEO, to act as a consultant to the troubled cruise giant.

Dickinson, who retired in 2007 after 35 years with Carnival, will focus on distribution strategies and marketing for Carnival Corp. in North American markets, Carnival said today. He will report to Carnival Corp. COO and vice chairman Howard Frank.

“It’s a brilliant move bringing Bob (Dickinson) back,” said Vicky Garcia, COO of Cruise Planners. “Carnival has a good team, but they have had some challenges of late and Bob is certainly the guy that can help re-direct and challenge them to turn things around.”

Cruise-seller Sherrie Funk said the reaction from agents in one agent group on Facebook was “almost universally positive.”

“Dickinson saw the value of agents as a major revenue stream,” said Funk, president of Just Cruisin’ Plus. “I would say he is a champion of the retail channel.”

Strategy shift?
Agents said they hoped the move by Carnival Corp. signals a shift away from a strict focus on cutting operating costs, a strategy many see as the root of Carnival Cruise Line’s recent operational problems, including the fire aboard the Triumph this winter.

“They couldn’t make a better move than rehiring Dickinson,” said Cindy Clifford, owner of Gotta Go Cruises in Riverhead, N.Y. “He’s part of the old guard that understands the business of cruising, but from a different angle than the businessmen who have taken over at the corporate level today.”

“I couldn’t be happier to know they’ve decided to take a step back and look at what made Carnival what it was,” Clifford said.

Cruise industry giant
Dickinson is credited with playing a pivotal role in building Carnival Cruise Lines into a major brand, as well as for his seminal book on the cruise industry, Selling the Sea: An Inside Look at the Cruise Industry.

“He’s a marketing genius, for one thing,” said Steve Gelfuson, president and CEO of CruiseBrothers.com.

Dickinson is also known to be outspoken. “There were a lot of times that he would be speaking and agents would get so upset with him. He would put agents in their place. But what he said was spot on. He is extremely well-respected,” Funk said.

Broken trust
Still, re-earning agents’ trust in Carnival Cruise Lines won’t be easy.

To accomplish that Carnival will have to “get rid of the pencil-pushing regime in place now who view travel agents as an expense line on the P&L. They need a regime who is not afraid to go out and meet and talk to travel agents,” said Steve Cosgrove, CTC, MCC, president of Dynamic Travel & Cruises.

Agents may not have always liked what Dickinson had to say to them in the past, Cosgrove said. But Dickinson “will get out and talk to agents and be someone we can talk to.”

That may not be enough for some agents.

“There’s a bunch of travel retailers that are going to be impossible to bring back. They believe that once things get better [for Carnival], they’re going to get kicked to the curb again,” Funk said.

A tough year
Apart from alienating travel agents, Carnival has suffered from a series of safety snafus and questionable public relations decisions, and public perception of the company has declined.

Carnival’s stock price dipped steeply following the February fire on the Carnival Triumph, causing the company to lower its earnings forecast for the year.