| Regent’s Odell: restart not far away

REGENT Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) Vice President Asia-Pacific Steve Odell (pictured) yesterday expressed optimism about the potential for both local and international cruising resumptions, during an event where he also confirmed ongoing strong demand for the cruise line’s future sailings.

With a restart of cruising clearly a hot topic, Odell said “it is an evolving situation as far as we’re concerned, we’re still working with Government agencies and ports around the world to get to a place where we can effectively and efficiently and safely start up the business again”.

“When you look at what’s happening around the world in other places and how it’s being successfully done, i don’t think it’s far away.

“In Australia CLIA has been working night and day with the Federal Government and with the State Governments representing all the cruise lines here about a local startup…we still don’t have progress to a point of a start date but I think we ought to lean towards what’s happening, especially in Singapore around the protocols, because I think that startup can happen safely, and that’s what we’ve been trying to voice to the Government here in Australia”.

“It’s still a bit of a way off, but we would certainly hope that the summer season next year could be the starting point,” he added.

He also noted the ongoing efforts around the upcoming Kimberley cruise season, which continues to be the subject of urgent discussions.

“We need to continue to pressure Governments with the good news stories about cruise, because there are a lot,” he said.

MEANWHILE RSSC is seeing strong evidence of pent-up demand for cruising, with booking numbers for its 2022-23 Voyage Collection and 2023 World Cruise surging to be up almost 40% within two hours of going live.

There’s also strong enthusiasm for close-to-home itineraries, particularly with the planned Dec arrival of Seven Seas Explorer in local waters.

Odell wrapped up his presentation by echoing a recent upbeat assessment by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio, who has a strong expectation of a massive boom.

“A golden era of cruising will happen over again…after every war comes boom times – think of the Roaring 20s, the 50s and 60s.

“The cruise business will take off like we’ve never seen before,” he said, adding that Regent was already seeing early signs in the luxury sector with a boom of pent-up demand.