OCEANIA Cruises is having ongoing internal discussions about future newbuilds, with the launch of Vista last week (CW 09 May) and sister ship Allura in 2025 marking the start of a new era for the brand, according to the Senior Vice President Sales Nikki Upshaw. Speaking aboard Vista last week,...
OCEANIA Cruises is having ongoing internal discussions about future newbuilds, with the launch of Vista last week (CW 09 May) and sister ship Allura in 2025 marking the start of a new era for the brand, according to the Senior Vice President Sales Nikki Upshaw.
Speaking aboard Vista last week, Upshaw told Cruise Weekly “while we don’t have any formal plans for further out than Allura, there’s no question that there’s ongoing conversations about the next builds”.
It’s been a decade since Oceania last expanded its fleet with the 2012 debut of Riviera (CW 15 May 2012), and Upshaw confirmed “we don’t expect we would go another 10 years between Allura and our next ship, you know, there’s going to be more of a steady growth”.
Oceania’s target market continues to be affluent 50-70 year olds, but that requires ongoing innovation because “the 60-year-old of today is very different to two decades ago when Oceania launched,” she said.
Any additions would continue Oceania’s firm positioning in the upper premium category.
“We feel we pioneered upper premium, or upper upper premium, and it’s our sweet spot to be able to engage a cruise guest, to move from a premium experience onto a smaller, more sophisticated ship,” she said.
Upshaw, who is pictured with VP of Sales APAC Jason Worth also confirmed a strong surge in business locally after COVID.
“Australia and NZ have always been important, but we’re very excited about this growth because we feel our style of cruise experience very much fits into the upscale Aussie and Kiwi traveller, it’s relaxed, it’s comfortable, it really fits well into the way that they like to travel.”
She said the Australian market was consistently in the top three for Oceania globally.
While there has been strong interest in the debut of Vista leading to a price premium of between 2% and 5% for her initial itineraries, Upshaw said she believes the overall impact will be to showcase the brand and generate interest across the fleet.
The debut itineraries for sister vessel Allura in 2025 will be released in Aug, while the full Oceania program for that year, including for Vista, will come out in Sep, Upshaw confirmed.
