Conroy: We started out including pre-cruise packages on our Alaska programme, and they’ve proved so popular we’ve now extended them to all our cruise destinations”

Stuart: Our thing is to run the ships, we don’t need – or particularly want – to get involved in land arrangements, though we will if clients want it."

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Spring 2011

Airlift anxiety boosts pre-cruise land packages

Strong demand for airlift and anxiety over possible flight delays are prompting cruise lines to place one- or even two-day ‘buffer zones’ between their clients’ flights to ports and their ships’ departure dates. What revenue-earning opportunities does this trend present for cruise destinations, Maria Harding asks – and how can they make the most of them?

As British Airways travellers stranded by last year’s wildcat strikes know to their cost, yield management systems may improve airline profits but they leave few alternative options should your flight be cancelled or delayed.
It’s annoying enough if you are hopping short-haul and end up arriving at your hotel later than you had planned, but an absolute disaster if you are flying out to take an expensive cruise and find you have – quite literally – missed the boat.
Cruise lines are increasingly adopting a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach when it comes to arranging airlift for their passengers, and flying them out at least one day ahead of their sailing date. And while this is nothing new for travellers flying long-haul to join a cruise ship, it increasingly also applies to those whose departure port is closer to home.
North American travellers are now being encouraged to head out a day early even to domestic departure ports, and lines with major Mediterranean operations – like Royal Caribbean International – stagger demand for airlift from the UK by getting passengers out to key hubs like Barcelona and Rome a day – or even two or three days – ahead of their cruise.
“Many of our UK passengers originate in Scotland, Ireland or the Midlands and fly out via London or Manchester, and demand is so high we have to stagger flights,” says RCI’s UK General Manager Jo Rzwymowska. “So we contract hotels and get people out a good 24 hours ahead of sailing.”
And Mark Conroy, President of luxury small-ship line Regent Seven Seas Cruises, says building a pre-cruise stay into his line’s offering has been a big hit with travellers seeing extra value.
“We started out including pre-cruise packages on our Alaska programme, and they’ve proved so popular we’ve now extended them to all our cruise destinations,” Conroy says. Having included shore excursions to stay ahead of the competition, RSSC was seeking a further bookings-booster, and the inclusion of a free night’s pre-cruise hotel stay proved to be just the ticket.
“Feedback from our passengers showed they had a lot of anxiety about getting to their ship on time,” he says. “We came up with the idea of a pre-cruise overnight as a new twist, and now 75% of passengers take us up on it – even though we offer a US$350 credit to those who don’t.”
He attributes the high take-up rate to growing awareness that it is no longer easy to switch to another flight if one is missed or cancelled, and that flying ahead gives time for any luggage mislaid en route to be recovered before the cruise starts.
“It also allows time to adjust to any clock change, and gives people time to actually see the city they’re departing from,” Conroy adds. “Plus it’s simply more relaxing; it means that people flying from, say, California to Florida don’t have to take the ‘red-eye’, which – particularly on a no-frills airline – is not much fun.”
And day-ahead departures are not just good news for cruise passengers. They also give switched-on destination managers the chance to score extra revenue from cruise tourism.
“People don’t just fly into a port to sail away from it any more,” says NCL Senior VP Sales and Passenger Services Andy Stuart. “Cruise tourism now offers major opportunities for destinations alert to the possibilities.”
And the potential is there for a destination to attract more than an overnight pre-cruise stay, he says. “We offer our clients pre-cruise packages, but as travellers get more savvy on both sides of the Atlantic they’re increasingly fixing their own flights and doing their own thing before the cruise starts – either sorting it out themselves or via a travel agent or tour operator.”
Tourist boards, destination and attraction managers could usefully be targeting such agents with business-building ideas. “Our thing is to run the ships,” Stuart says. “We don’t need – or particularly want – to get involved in land arrangements, though we will if clients want it.
“That means the field is clear for land managers with imagination and drive to start earning seriously from early-arriving cruise tourists.”
What kind of things should they be coming up with? Anything which allows cruise passengers to make best use of their time, says RCI’s Rzwymowska. “‘Freedom of the City’-style tickets giving our passengers discounted access to restaurants, shows and top attractions would play well,” she said.
“This is a great opportunity for tourist boards, local Chambers of Commerce and so on to get their heads together, as we and other cruise lines are now bringing in serious numbers of people who really want to see the highlights of their departure port before they sail away from it.”
Claire Riches, Head of Marketing for NCL in the UK, says the rapidly changing profile of cruise passengers is creating new patterns of demand for experiences ashore.
“For example, you might assume that city tours by private care with an individual guide are very much the province of wealthier passengers on deluxe ships,” she says. “But you’d be wrong to think that nowadays, as we’re increasingly seeing bookings for such tours from multi-generational family groups either touring together or booking separate cars.
“They want to design their own itinerary so that everybody gets the chance to do what they want during their pre-cruise stay, and have it bespoke.”
Both tailored and ready-made cruise-and-stay packages from tour operators are also on the up-and-up, says Riches. “We’re seeing many more initiatives from our travel trade partners in terms of packaging land arrangements around cruises, and often tying them in with major event like the Barcelona Grand Prix.
“In a way the trend is going full circle; people new to cruising used to book cruise-and-stays just in case they didn’t enjoy the experience of being at sea, but would usually switch to all-cruising on their second trip.
“Now they’re hooked on cruising, but are looking to increase the land element of the holiday so they can see top destinations in a bit more depth – and companies like Cruise.co.uk and Titan Travel are winning good business by sending out quite complex e-mails to their customer base suggesting imaginatively packaged cruise and stay products.”
Cruise.co.uk Chairman Andrew Gardner says his company is always keen to hear from destination managers with products to offer – and happy for them to use its popular website as a billboard.
“It’s not worth our while to get involved in the minutiae of a travel experience – booking restaurant tables, arranging tickets to shows and attractions and so on – but we’re very happy for our site to be used as a conduit for local suppliers, as this provides an extra service for our customers – so come and talk to us,” he says.
NCL’s Andy Stuart offers the same advice. “If I were a destination manager I would go courting travel agents and the big travel distributors,” he suggests.
“Research indicates that more than half the trips taken by US travellers have been researched on the Expedia website – it’s a billboard for travel as much as a seller of it, so make use of it to promote your product, whatever it may be.
“And whatever you’re promoting, my advice would be to keep your pitch simple; the less complicated the choices, the more people buy.”