“Celebrity has taken care of their travel agents better than any cruise line.”
"You were a positive force [proving] that cruising is going to be back.”
These were common community refrains during a conversation between travel advisors and Royal Caribbean Group chairman and CEO, Richard Fain (who recently announced he is stepping down from the position of CEO), and Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, onboard the new Celebrity Apex, which has recently returned to operation.
The supplier-advisor relationship was top of mind during the session as Lutoff-Perlo added, “support goes both ways, so I think we owe you a huge debt of gratitude. We felt the support, and we knew you all wanted us to get back. And I can’t tell you how much that drove us to do just that.”
Agents applauded the help and positivity they received from the company’s business development managers during the pandemic. The only real critical feedback was in response to the company’s call center, which proved frustrating to those who could not be connected quickly. Both executives said they are working on improving the experience as soon as possible, but Fain admitted it would not happen overnight.
Something he does expect to happen sooner rather than later is the rolling back of some pandemic protocols. While he anticipates that enhanced cleaning measures will remain, he thinks it might become easier to get onboard with less testing in due course, and he believes masks will disappear in the near future.
Face coverings are no longer required of guests on Celebrity, though they remain on Royal Caribbean due to the number of unvaccinated children the line carries. Silversea Cruises’ mandate depends on what destinations dictate.
“We’re very eager to get rid of them, and I think as things go on, [particularly the authorizing of vaccines for kids as young as five], we will,” Fain said. Until then, he added, “surveys are showing that it’s not that much of an impediment, interestingly, because we have a lot of areas onboard [Royal Caribbean ships] where vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask.”
Jackie Friedman, vice chairman and secretary of the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), was also in the audience, and had additional high praise for the parent cruise company and its CEO, who just received a lifetime achievement award from the organization.
“Royal Caribbean Group, as well as you personally, Richard, have been over-the-top supportive of the work that ASTA’s doing,” she said. “In addition to the loans and everything else you did for the trade, I didn’t want that ASTA support to go unnoticed because it is tremendously appreciated.”
In fact, Deborah Christofferson, a travel specialist at Already Gone Travel, came on the microphone to express just how much that support will influence her sales moving forward.
"Here’s my commitment because of what you did and how you stood behind us,” she said. “From this day forward, I will no longer sell any other cruises but Celebrity and the Royal group.”
Two-thirds of Royal’s corporate fleet is already sailing again, and by the end of the year should be at 100% in the company’s core markets, according to Fain. Asia and Australia remain outliers.
In the meantime, he recognizes the importance of overcoming any lingering negative associations with cruising from the beginning of the pandemic, and so his message to agents is for them to accurately inform clients.
Our mantra was we wanted to be safer than Main Street U.S.A., and it looks like we’re achieving that,” he said. “But we need to get that message out. Beat the bushes. Do the thing you’ve always done so well, which is sell and educate the public. And I would be missing something if I didn’t also say wash your hands.”
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Royal Caribbean Group
