THE Australian market is especially prone to ambiguity around what type of cruise experiences are deemed ‘luxury’, Silversea SVP global sales & e-commerce Carol Cabezas (pictured) indicated during a recent visit to Australia. Speaking with Cruise Weekly, the senior sales executive said the local team has relayed to her that...
THE Australian market is especially prone to ambiguity around what type of cruise experiences are deemed ‘luxury’, Silversea SVP global sales & e-commerce Carol Cabezas (pictured) indicated during a recent visit to Australia.
Speaking with Cruise Weekly, the senior sales executive said the local team has relayed to her that some travel products are being mislabelled as luxury, creating a degree of customer confusion.
However, Cabezas said brands like Silversea are not too perturbed by the trend, because misappropriating the term will ultimately lead to dissatisfied customers who won’t return.
“There is no benefit to claiming something that you are not because you will just set up the guest for disappointment,” Cabezas affirmed.
“I have every confidence that we are properly describing what we are delivering such that the guest is going to arrive and feel like they were sold the right bill of goods,” she added.
SVP Adam Radwanski added that while it “may be tempting” for marketers to use the term luxury because it’s easier to acquire clients, the tactic will ultimately end in disappointment.
“The fact that you might be serving Prosecco or Champagne on board doesn’t make you luxury – luxury is about the fine details,” Radwanski said.
Cabezas said that customer feedback scores are one of the key ways for luxury brands to know how they are tracking in terms of guest expectations.
The cruise line has a “thriving community” of Venetian Society loyalty guests who, in recent years, have been rating the company higher than ever before.
“To me that indicates that we have that proper communication of setting expectations that our guests are going to love once they get on,” Cabezas said. AB
