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Cunard Line to get own resources in UK sales team restructuring - report

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 16 February 2016 16 February 2016

P&O Cruises and Cunard Line, both of which are parts of the Carnival Corporation & plc group, have announced plans for a overhaul of their sales team structure that would include the introduction of dedicated resources for Cunard for the first time under Carnival and an expanded field sales team with greater focus on building up regional business, Travel Weekly reports.

The proposals will see the creation of three teams – national partnerships, managed by Nathaniel Sherborne, retail partnerships led by Shane Riley, and sales operations headed by Natasha Richardson, the report said.

Cunard Line and P&O Cruises have shared shore based resources since the formation of the Carnival Corporation & plc group in 2003. Princess Cruises was also part of the shared UK based organisation, but it was separated from it a few years ago.

Egil Haugsdal appointed President of Kongsberg Maritime

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 16 February 2016 16 February 2016

Egil Haugsdal has been appointed President of Kongsberg Maritime, the maritime equipment unit of the Norwegian Kongsberg group.

“Haugsdal holds extensive leadership experience from Kongsberg, and currently heads Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies. He has previous experience from Kongsberg as Executive Vice President of Business Development and as President of Kongsberg Protech Systems,” the company said in a statement.

“I am delighted with the confidence I have been given. After seven years as part of KONGSBERG’s corporate management team I know both the company and the strategy well. Kongsberg Maritime is a solid company with leading international positions, and I look forward to further development of the company together with skilled employees in Norway and internationally,” Haugsdal said in the statement.

In addition to maritime equipment and technology, Kongsberg is involved in defence industry

Pullmantur Cruises rolls out new 2016-17 Caribbean itineraries

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 12 February 2016 12 February 2016

Alan Lam reporting

Pullmantur Cruises, the Spain and Latin America focused brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., has just published its 2016-17 winter Caribbean programme on board its two ships, Zenith and Monarch.

For the 2016-17 season the line will offer a new “Caribbean Islands” (Islas del Caribe) itinerary on Zenith, touted as the “only East Caribbean itinerary with Latin American ambience”. The first departure is planned for 23 December 2016 from Santo Domingo, calling at La Romana, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia and Barbados.

The Monarch, Pullmantur’s flagship, will set sail on 4 November 2016 on the “Caribbean Legend” (Caribe Legendario) itinerary, visiting Puerto Limón (Costa Rice), Colón (Panamá), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), Jamaica and Grand Cayman.

The company operates in the south, east and west of Caribbean. It uses Cartagena de Indias, Colón and Santo Domingo as its principal ports of embarkation.

Despite its recent refocus on Spain, Pullmantur still see Latin America as crucial to its future expansion. Nearly half of its customers are sourced from this vast region.

Latin America, according to Jorge Vilches, President of Pullmantur, represents “a significant weight” (un peso muy significativo) in its strategy and the company is “very satisfied” (muy satisfecha) with the recent evolution in this market. Vilches also stated that there were challenges in this region the company needed to confront; more investment and hard work were needed.

Royal Caribbean to strengthen storm avoidance effort after Anthem of the Seas saga

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 11 February 2016 11 February 2016

Royal Caribbean International, the contemporary market unit in the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) group, said it would strengthen its storm avoidance efforts after its Anthem of the Seas had run in heavy weather on the east coast of North America.

Anthem of the Seas will return to Cape Liberty, NJ this evening and it is expected resume service on Saturday.

“Despite that fact, the event, exceptional as it was, identified gaps in our planning system that we are addressing. Though that system has performed well through many instances of severe weather around the world, what happened this week showed that we need to do better,” the company said in a statement.

The severity of Sunday's storm, with its 120 mph winds, far exceeded forecasts. “Even so, it is our responsibility to eliminate every surprise we possibly can,” Royal Caribbean stated.

“As of today, we are strengthening our storm avoidance policy, and have added resources at our Miami headquarters to provide additional guidance to our ships' captains.”

TUI reports continued good performance of its cruise business

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: More News More News; Published: 11 February 2016 11 February 2016

TUI AG, the world’s largest tour operator, said its cruise business had delivered stronger operating results in the first quarter of its financial year than in the corresponding period a year earlier.

Underlying EBITA increased to €8 million in the three months to 31 December 2015 from €2 million. The fresh figure included a €5 million benefit from the refinancing of Europa 2 and strong trading by Mein Schiff 4 which launched in June 2015.

This was partly offset by €2 million dry-dock costs for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises and non-repeat of a €2 million shipyard financing provision release in the prior year in TUI Cruises.

“Bookings and yields for both TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises remain strong. We are pleased with the progress in bookings for Mein Schiff 5, which launches in July 2016,” TUI said.

The company owns 50% of TUI Cruises and 100% of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. It is also the sole owner of Thomson cruises that operates on the British market with chartered tonnage, but its figures are not included in the cruise business on TUI, which has its main listing in London and legal domicile in Hannover, Germany.