Duffy: First-Time Cruisers Are Key

FORT LAUDERDALE — Worries over pricing, market penetration and the need to attract more first-time cruisers were top of mind for cruise line executives at CLIA’s 10th annual Cruise3sixty conference here last week.

For CLIA’s perspective on the issues, Travel Market Report sat down with president and CEO Christine Duffy.

Citing cruise line execs who spoke during the conference, Duffy observed that while the industry is capacity-constrained, with ships going out full, “there is a discrepancy between the price and how much value people are getting.” Even so, she said. attracting rookie cruisers is top priority.

Duffy also discussed CLIA’s plans to do more for member agents and the rebranding of National Cruise Vacation Week.

How do you think cruise lines will deal with challenges such as market penetration?
Duffy: There’s a recognition at this stage of the industry’s evolution that the lines have done a great job in expanding to other parts of the globe, just like CLIA is now global.

They recognize that a lot of cruisers are repeat and that each brand spends lots of money promoting its unique features. But that may not be enough to get the demand from people who have not cruised before.

There’s got to be further penetration in the most mature market, North America, so we can get greater demand and fill capacity as its added.

The industry isn’t adding much capacity, though.
Duffy: Capacity is still up, but it’s not increasing as much as in the early 2000s. If you look at the number of new ships, half of them are river vessels. So when you look at new capacity of ocean [vessels], there has been a lot of refurbishment of ships instead of building.

The focus now is on what we do collectively to drive that demand for first-time cruisers.

I was surprised to hear about the rebranding of National Cruise Vacation Week as CLIA Cruise Week. Is it because of CLIA’s new international focus?
Duffy: It’s to be more consistent. We’ve now globalized CLIA and everyone is using the brand. We have people in the U.K., Ireland and Australasia who use the [cruise week] concept now. We wanted to simplify it, so we chose CLIA Cruise Week.

We always used the ‘vacation’ language, but in the U.K. and Australia they use the word ‘holiday’ instead.

Each area can choose their own week. We try to have it all happen at the same time but it’s complicated. [Editor’s note: In the U.S., Cruise Week 2014 is Oct. 6 to 13.]

CLIA hired former CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. executive Dwain Wall two months ago. How’s his role as the go-to guy for agents shaping up?
Duffy: Bringing Dwain in was really all about CLIA’s travel agent value proposition and our recognition that while we may be the largest cruise group in terms of agents we touch, we need to evolve to ensure we stay relevant and provide value.

We really wanted someone onboard with recent experience [on the agency side]. When I started out my career as a travel agent it was a long time ago, and the world has changed!

He understands where agents are coming from, and he’s able to articulate to the cruise execs the views that agents have and how CLIA can create something that works for everybody.

Revamped training has been one of Dwain’s projects, correct?
Duffy: It’s all about working with agents and redesigning our training for people who don’t have the time to drive to attend a training class. Also, offering more options for shorter classes.

The cruise lines are always updating their product training, so we don’t worry about that. A lot of our training is about how to be more effective as an agent, how to leverage social media tools and how to sell more cruises.

How’s CLIA’s push for a global operation going?
Duffy: We’ve got 26 people across Europe working for CLIA now. We launched CLIA Italy last month, with an office is Rome, CLIA Spain earlier this year and CLIA Germany last fall.

We’re going to focus on Asia now. Asia is a significant emerging market and they’re very interested to attract cruising, at the government level.