| Aus providing Oceania with early business

OCEANIA Cruises’ push from an upper-premium to a luxury line has paid off in spades, with the brand posting some of its best sales numbers in the past months.

President & Chief Executive Officer Harry Sommer, speaking on a panel at the christening of the new Oceania Allura (pictured) last week (CW yesterday), said advisors in particular have been providing a massive contribution to the brand’s bottom line.

“Trade sales are nothing short of spectacular these last three or four months now…we’re hitting the booking and revenue targets that we’re looking to hit,” he said.

“I think underpinning this is the importance of the brand, looking at what Oceania’s positioning is in the marketplace, and truly positioning this as a luxury brand,” Sommer added.

Oceania is investing heavily in increasing its share of non-American guests, Senior Vice President International & Consumer Sales Steve Odell added, with this segment diversifying some of the cruise line’s key metrics.

“About 20% of the business comes internationally, but that’s increasing because we’ve really made a big concerted effort in the last 12 months to grow the share of international guests on board,” Odell added.

“The reason for doing that is, in certain markets, we can get very early business, [other] markets we can get very late business, and the booking curves can often be quite different from the US.

“It’s a really good way for us to get a good baseloading of business for the future.”

Australians often book very far in advance, Odell explained – sometimes up to 18 months ahead – while Europeans can do a lot of business in the last few weeks before a cruise departs.

Trends the two markets share include staying for longer and booking higher-category accommodations, he added. MS