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Royal Caribbean to sail into Asian cruise market
By Ben Marlow
May 14, 2006

ROYAL Caribbean, the world’s second-largest cruise operator, will this year unveil bold plans to expand into the lucrative Asian market as it seeks to lure passengers to and from more exotic locations around the world.

The move will give Royal Caribbean a global reach as well as pitch it against its arch rival Carnival, the world’s number one cruise company, which has announced similar plans for Asia.

Royal Caribbean is also looking to add Middle Eastern ports such as Alexandria to its list of destinations as the group seeks to counter the potential softening of more saturated markets such as the Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean’s landmark plans, a secret until now, to expand into Asia, a new and so far untapped market for the biggest cruise ship holiday operators, will be carried out through its luxury brand Celebrity Cruises.

Royal Caribbean’s fleet has 29 cruise ships, which currently sail to Alaska, the Caribbean, and Europe, including Freedom of the Seas, the world’s largest, which arrived in New York last week for its maiden voyage. Ten liners operate under the high-end Celebrity brand.

Celebrity, which has a number of the most highly regarded cruise ships in the industry, will compete directly in Asia with Carnival’s luxury arm Costa Cruises.

Royal Caribbean is expected to choose China as one of its key markets, due to the sheer size of its population, which has an emerging middle-class population that has yet to embrace the cruise market. Carnival will begin offering seven-night itineraries in Asia from July. The decision by both companies to begin operating in a new region comes at a time when the cruise industry is experiencing huge global growth in demand for cruise holidays.

But the increased interest is being countered by slower growth in the more popular markets as well as increased fuel prices. Therefore, to continue growing, the big operators must develop new markets.

Although the new initiatives will be smaller in comparison to operations in older markets such as North America and the Caribbean, growth is expected to be faster.

The Business Online

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Cheers

[ 05-17-2006: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

[ 05-17-2006: Message edited by: dmwnc1 ]

Costa Cruises, would become the first western cruise line to offer voyages from Shanghai marketed exclusively to Chinese passengers.

Source: Maritime Matters

However, I also read this to indicate their effort (RCI) will be focused at that same market, not to us Westerners...

Celebrity...will compete directly in Asia with Carnival’s luxury arm Costa Cruises.

Royal Caribbean is expected to choose China as one of its key markets, due to the sheer size of its population, which has an emerging middle-class population that has yet to embrace the cruise market.

I wonder what ship they will send???

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[ 05-17-2006: Message edited by: dmwnc1 ]

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Originally posted by bulbousbow :

Celebrity, which has a number of the most highly regarded cruise ships in the industry, will compete directly in Asia with Carnival’s luxury arm Costa Cruises.

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Originally posted by Pascal:
Since when Costa is regarded as "Carnival luxury arm" ? It's just an european mass market brand, exatcly similar to what is the Carnial Cruise Line brand in US !

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This is not being racist but I have heard Star cruises are popular with asians who paticulary love gambling. Having worked in the hospitality industry it is the Asian market that gives casino operators the most revenue.

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Originally posted by Sutho:
I think the real reason RCCL wants to venture into Asia is not so much to give passengers exotic ports, but more so to get enthusiastic gamblers into their ships casinos.

This is not being racist but I have heard Star cruises are popular with asians who paticulary love gambling. Having worked in the hospitality industry it is the Asian market that gives casino operators the most revenue.

As far as exotic places in Asia there are few and far between. Who would want to go to Vietnam and have hoards of children harass you for money or steal your shoes when you go into a temple and make you pay to get them back. I doubt that any western client would find the cusine exotic with things like rats, mice, cat liver, bugs etc. Then there is South Korea where all you get is tour guides who are political commentators praising their democracy. I have had enough of that reigon and last time I was there Mumbai to be precise I got held hostage in a taxi the cruise line suggested I take and he would not release me until I gave him all my money.

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100% agree with you.

In HK, people think that Star Cruises 99% = casino ship.

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HKcruises wrote:
Some on say that the owner of HK's casino ships can earn back what they have paid for the ships within few months

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What's the suicide rate in Hong Kong?

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I don't believe that Royal Caribbean / Celebrity will do shorter cruises that attract gamblers most. Gamblers enjoy very short cruise (say a night or just several hours) and if they are still hungry of gambling they will continue with more cruises, say up to 13 cruises a week. I bet Royal Caribbean / Celebrity will launch either something like 14-days Singapore - Hong Kong "Asian Odyssey" or like Costa Allegra doing 5 to 6 nights homeport cruising from Hong Kong or Shanghai. Such cruises can hardly attract many gamblers, since the time is too long. Most gamblers do not enjoy life at sea and many have seasick. Not to mention many of them do not need a cabin, nor do they expect to dress up for formal nights. For instance, do you think Royal Caribbean / Celebrity will charge HK$300 (US$38) or lower per night, as with other casino ships? Costa Allegra's Shanghai cruise has a per-night price 3-4 times higher than most Hong Kong casino ships.

Another thing that I wonder is the extend that how much the Chinese government allows ships to sail to open sea for gambling. Very often casino ships in China (like Ming Fai Princess) are arrested because of "embarking passengers to gamble at sea" and it seems that they are not permitted to sail in certain itineraries (perhaps not allowed to include only Chinese ports in itinerary?). For instance, even Wasa Queen was banned to sail further Xiamen ferry cruises after the first trial until Star Cruises gets the license to embark passengers in Chinese ports.

I believe that there is strong potential for real cruising around Asia, which is currently underdeveloped. No doubt cruise lines are likely to earn more revenue from gaming in Asia than their ships in the west, but I do not believe that the aim to develop Asian market is for gambling revenue. They could already earn a lot if they do so many years ago, with ships like Island Escape or much much poorer ships.

I agree that traveling in Asia may be less comfortable than in many other parts in the world, especially in Vietnam and Indonesia, where there is sometimes also a threat of terrorism. However, countries and cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan are highly civilized so that tourists should feel safe and comfortable to travel on themselves. For instance, I explored Singapore on my own for 3 days when I was 20 and other people thought that I'm local.

A Radiance class ship would be good and one way trips between somewhere like Hong Kong or Shanghai and Darwin.

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Originally posted by Sutho:
I have never been to Hong Kong, I know its a high tech modern city and would love to visit it.

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It's an amazing mix of the old and the new.

In part its like a high-tech New York, yet blended with the ancient far east. I went into China too, which was like passing though a time-tunnel into the past - quite facinating.

[ 05-20-2006: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by Carlos Fernandez:
Exotic Destinations once again, but will it last long?

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