OCEANIA Cruises Senior Vice President Global Sales Nikki Upshaw has told Cruise Weekly the line’s passengers are continuing the trend of booking higher stateroom categories and sailing for longer.
Upshaw, who is in Australia this week from head office in Miami, said Oceania is performing “extremely well” globally, as trends which became apparent at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to prevail.
“Our concierge level, verandah categories and up, are really where we see the demand come in, as opposed to the lower categories on our ships, so that’s a sustained trend globally,” Upshaw said.
“The other phenomenon, especially as you see here in Australia, is sailing for a bit longer.
“Back-to-back [sailings] and our Grand Voyages are continuing to be something which really resonates,” she added.
Upshwaw said this latter trend has developed in part due to how Oceania designs its itineraries.
“We try very hard not to ever repeat ports, so it’s quite easy to keep meandering through the world on Oceania by adding another voyage.”
Vice President International Sales Jason Worth explained in addition to longer sailings, Australian guests are also seeking more exotic cruises.
“We’re seeing a lot of interest in Asia,” he explained, adding, “we have Riviera based in Asia this year and next year, so there’s some circumnavigations of Japan, and those are very popular”.
Worth said Oceania is also seeing a large amount of interest in Africa – a destination sister brand Norwegian Cruise Line just announced a second season for (CW 24 Jan).
“We’ve also seen big interest in West Africa when ships are repositioning into Europe, so there are some Cape Town round trips,” he added.
“It’s a great way to see the developing world…and we also have our ship Marina in South America, which is a great way to see a lot of South America and even sneak in Antarctica.” MS
