As Azamara Heads Onward, What’s the Future for the Cruise Line?
经过Brittany Chrusciel/
On May 2, Azamara Cruises christened its fourth ship, Azamara Onward. Under new ownership and leadership, Azamara used the inauguration to symbolically usher in a new era for the small cruise line with a fiercely loyal following — about 45 percent of its guests are repeat passengers.
The ship itself is identical in most respects to the other three in the fleet: Azamara Quest, Azamara Journey, and Azamara Pursuit (with the exception of the all-new Atlas Bar, which replaces the library on Deck 10). The captain, the hotel director, the cruise director, and many crew have been with the company for decades. The specialty restaurants haven’t changed, and while new shows have been added to Onward’s repertoire, ABBA is still a crowd favorite.
因此,除了与皇家加勒比海巡航有限公司(Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited)打破联系外,许多人可能想知道Azamara Cruises发生了什么变化。We sailed onboard Azamara Onward’s five-night, pre-inaugural voyage from Barcelona to Monte Carlo and had the opportunity to hear the company’s leadership team speak about some new approaches to marketing, an expansion of evening tours, and many of the things that will purposefully remain the same.
Attracting Guests with New Marketing Tactics
Azamara is actively looking at different marketing and media channels. A revamped e-commerce platform will feature a new website and become more efficient for users as well as those on the back end. Azamara executives noted that they recognize people consume media in different ways, and that things have become even more digital following the pandemic.
“Within our marketing, we’re looking at how we expand our reach in different ways to customers who might be interested in this product, but maybe we haven’t been able to get in front of based on the channels we’ve used in the past,” Carol Cabezas, president of Azamara Cruises, explained.
Azamara最近聘请了Andrea Baigorria为PR和Communications的全球负责人,他有望将更多的这些举措纳入每个部门在整个业务中所做的事情,并简化了营销工作。邮轮公司刚刚推出了一个新闻中心,以及一个新的品牌活动,该活动将以数字方式称为“改变海上的方式”,以与不同的受众获得声音。
在预订方面,我们被告知英国客户正在领导这一收费。据卡贝扎斯说,北美正在预订“合适的开始”,他同意当前的测试要求重新进入美国。尽管最近重新开放了边界,但澳大利亚/新西兰客户还是为当地的夏季预订表演了很大的展示。Cabezas指出,预订的巡洋舰,尤其是其忠诚客户,正在登上更长的时间,并背靠背航行。
Travel Partners Remain Essential
Cabezas reassured us that despite new and multifaceted marketing tactics, the advisor community will remain an essential part of selling the brand and bringing new guests to Azamara. “Our travel partners are key. Azamara is a brand that needs to be sold; it doesn’t have that mainstream recognition.” New-to-brand customers make up about 10 to 15 percent of Azamara’s passenger mix.
“They’re graduating from other lines; they had their kids and now they’re finding something that matches their current style of vacationing,” Cabezas inferred about new-to-brand cruisers. The panel also disclosed that guests who primarily vacation by land are attracted to the Azamara product because of the destinations. So, selling Azamara becomes less about people who are considering a cruise and more about matching clients to a product that will show them the best itinerary in a comfortable way.
Cabezas highlighted something that many of us know, and that is despite initial sticker shock for some, cruising is always a tremendous value when you consider the cost of the hotel, entertainment, food, transportation, etc. “You’re taken care of in a way that no land experience is going to do. We aim to provide that authentic experience that land-based guests are looking for,” Cabezas said.
就硬件而言,拥有四艘非常相似的船只的营销效率是巨大的,使旅行伙伴更容易理解产品以及如何向客户出售。Cabezas说:“一条消息适合整个舰队。”
“The trade is and continues to be the dominant part of our [customer] sourcing. Our travel partners have been extraordinary in introducing guests to our brand, and they work tirelessly to make sure their clients have a wonderful experience. So, we’ll continue to support and rely on our travel partners to be the major sourcing of our guests.”
The Destination Promise
对于阿扎马拉(Azamara)的价值行程,大流行前涉及国家密集型巡游的枢纽,它们仍然受欢迎。但是,在访问一个国家时,这些目的地剥离的航行变得更加至关重要,在组织测试和疫苗要求方面的挑战明显较小。希腊和金丝雀群岛在克鲁斯线重返服务中的早期出现。
Azamara Onward will be doing Greek-intensives in summer and fall this year, as well as cruises exploring Croatia and Italy. Michael Pawlus, Azamara’s director of strategic itinerary and destination planning, said he’s excited about the “Islands of the Mediterranean” cruise, from Rome to Barcelona, which departs on October 21, 2022, and will be offered into 2023 and 2024. Cabezas emphasized that single-destination voyages are still a staple of Azamara Cruises and will remain that way going forward.
“We’ve given a lot of thought to what needs to change and what needs to remain the same. At the core of Azamara is the destination promise and that is not going to change,” Cabezas said. “What we are doing [to attract the next generation of Azamara cruisers] is looking at world events that attract certain clients looking for something special.”
Two of Azamara’s ships will go to the Monaco Grand Prix at the end of May, and we’re told the British Open is another hugely popular theme sailing.
“我们一直在添加新的少女港口,以使返回客人以及参观其他一些地区的事物与众不同。”
Owning the Night
Gina Dunnett, Azamara’s director of land product development, mentioned that the brand’s concept of “owning the night” is currently under development. “It’s not just taking someone off the ship in the evening; it’s having them come back and feeling really enriched,” Dunnett said of the line’s work to claim evening excursions and experiences; it’s a concept which they will be expanding in 2023. “We’re looking at key cities — their entertainment; food — a lot of times it’s just connecting with a local and seeing what happens in that evening. We want you to connect with the crew onboard, but the locals as well.”
“当您与Azamara一起旅行时,它会改变您的观点,并以我们在港口的时间来增强度假体验的时间,” Cabezas告诉我们。“从统计上讲,我们在行业的任何邮轮港口花费大量时间,这绝对是故意的。深夜和过夜是人们如何以一种不休闲和非常轻松的方式做事。每当您去目的地时,白天都有一个故事,晚上有一个故事。”
AzAmazing晚上once-per-cruise包括event for all guests and are a signature offering of the cruise line. Due to the pandemic, logistics made it difficult to take hundreds of passengers off the ship in any given port and gather them in a single place, so versions of this destination enrichment activity were brought onboard the ships in the interim. In our case, in late April, an AzAmazing evening exploring Porto Venere, Italy with live music and bites was transformed into a daytime event. We’re told that AzAmazing Evenings will resume in the coming months.
加强车载体验
With so much talk about the destination, it’s also important to consider the onboard experience. While service is regularly rated very high, the daily activities and enrichment are a bit sleepy.
“We are looking at how we approach activities differently,” Cabezas told us. “So, giving the experience onboard, when you’re not visiting a destination, a bit more of a kick. It’s not just about what you’re doing in destination. Sea days are not common because we’re always spending the most amount of time in a destination, but really refreshing what you can do onboard and making it fun.”
We’re curious to see how the destination can be tied more clearly to the activities onboard, and what will improve upon the current afternoon highlight of bean bag toss.
What’s Next?
Given that all of the former Renaissance vessels are now reclaimed (four ships under Azamara and four with Oceania Cruises), the obvious question is, what comes next for growing the fleet?
“您为什么要购买其他任何东西?阿扎马拉(Azamara)的大师卡尔·史密斯(Carl Smith)上尉说:“我想做的事情没有其他事情要做。”
Time will tell whether Azamara is looking to purchase Oceania’s ships and continue their legacy of R-Class cruising or stretch themselves as a company by undertaking a new build.
“The long-term strategy is absolutely to grow the fleet, and that can happen in different ways,” Cabezas explained. “Our investors are focused on growing our brand because they feel like what we’re doing speaks to a vacationer today, and there is room within that audience to have more of this product for them.”