INCOMING Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Chief Executive Officer Harry Sommer has pledged to continue the company’s “100% commitment to the trade” across the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. Speaking earlier this week to trade partners, Sommer (pictured) laid out three key pillars of...
INCOMING Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Chief Executive Officer Harry Sommer has pledged to continue the company’s “100% commitment to the trade” across the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands.
Speaking earlier this week to trade partners, Sommer (pictured) laid out three key pillars of his vision for the business going forward, as he continues the legacy of his mentor, Oceania founder Frank Del Rio Sr.
“The first revolves around people, it’s by far the most important thing we have,” he said.
NCLH employs about 40,000 team members across the group’s 30 ships and shoreside operations “who are super passionate about what they do, and they’re what makes the guest experience come to light,” Sommer enthused.
“I’m committed to them, they’re committed to the guests,” he added, saying that in his new role he was keen to developing females and under-represented minorities among the NCLH ranks, who “in the past might have been a little bit neglected”.
“The second core principle is around the product,” he said.
“We believe across all three of our brands that we deliver the best product within our respective spaces.
“I think you can all agree that there’s nothing within what we call the upper premium market that compares to the Oceania brand…I know there are other players but none of them have hardware like this,” Sommer said.
“None of them have service like this, none of them have the food, the destinations, you know the entire package put together [is] what we believe to be quite a good value proposition.”
His third pillar is partnerships, with Sommer saying NCLH is “100% committed to the trade”.
“We don’t do anything to put them second, we put them first, also again, across all three of our brands,” Sommer noted.
He confirmed that the new Norwegian Cruise Line policy of paying commission on NCFs was also being trialled among Oceania’s top agents (CW 08 May) and “we’ll find ways to expand that further to all of our trade partners around the world”.
“We jointly can reach out to consumers in unique ways to generate demand – and once you get guests to come on board, the product speaks for itself and both you and I have an annuity for life,” he concluded.
“Your success is our success.”
