How Megaships Are Driving A Wave Of Meetings At Sea
While the industry has seen spectacular success with rising passenger counts (now over 20 million per year) through its decades long push to market cruising as a better vacation alternative to land-based resorts, one of the hottest growth segments is meetings at sea. While there are no industry statistics, executives estimate that the total market for business group meetings, which includes incentives, may be as high as eight percent of total passengers, meaning more than 1.5 million attendees for meetings at sea last year.
Smaller ships, particularly those in the luxury category, have long tapped into the business travel market with board meetings and incentives. Bruce Setloff, Vice President of Crystal Cruises, says at the highest end of the market, security, flexibility and keeping a low profile are helping drive more business meetings, particularly for company boards. With its new 62-passenger yacht Crystal Esprit, he says, there are requests to stay at sea for the meetings for extra security and discretion. He adds, “Some of the boards don’t want to be high profile. Ever since the AIG effect, a lot of them don’t want to see their name on a hotel events board.”
Silversea Cruises, which operates small luxury ships has two of its vessels chartered for corporate hospitality during the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Still, it’s the new class of megaships carrying as many as 6,000 passengers that is driving the growth in the meetings segment, providing an ideal canvas to lure more meetings away from traditional spots such as Orlando and Las Vegas and out to sea.
Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President, Sales, Trade Support and Service for Royal Caribbean International, says the major breakthrough was bringing high-speed Internet to its ships, including the ability to stream video as well as link in land-based colleagues.
“The cruise lines have come a long way in understanding the meetings market,” says Anne Marie Moebes, Executive Vice President of Acclaim Meetings, a planner which is focused on groups of 250 to 2,500. She adds, “They’ve followed what resorts offer with onsite meetings coordinators. Audio visual and food and beverage are normally a large part of the cost of the meeting, and that’s included on a cruise, so there is tremendous value.”
Ken Muskat, an Executive Vice President with MSC Cruises, says its four newest ships feature 1,600 seat theatres with no pillars or obstructions, significantly upping the size of meetings that can be accommodated. A new private island that will come online at the end of 2017 will provide more opportunities to offer customized events from team-building games to concerts. The new ships also feature dedicated meeting rooms, in addition to lounges that can be converted. Muskat says, an added plus of cruise meetings is it is easy to bring along the family cost-effectively, and being on a ship fosters stronger bonds between attendees.
Reported by: Forbes.com
Smaller ships, particularly those in the luxury category, have long tapped into the business travel market with board meetings and incentives. Bruce Setloff, Vice President of Crystal Cruises, says at the highest end of the market, security, flexibility and keeping a low profile are helping drive more business meetings, particularly for company boards. With its new 62-passenger yacht Crystal Esprit, he says, there are requests to stay at sea for the meetings for extra security and discretion. He adds, “Some of the boards don’t want to be high profile. Ever since the AIG effect, a lot of them don’t want to see their name on a hotel events board.”
Silversea Cruises, which operates small luxury ships has two of its vessels chartered for corporate hospitality during the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Still, it’s the new class of megaships carrying as many as 6,000 passengers that is driving the growth in the meetings segment, providing an ideal canvas to lure more meetings away from traditional spots such as Orlando and Las Vegas and out to sea.
Vicki Freed, Senior Vice President, Sales, Trade Support and Service for Royal Caribbean International, says the major breakthrough was bringing high-speed Internet to its ships, including the ability to stream video as well as link in land-based colleagues.
“The cruise lines have come a long way in understanding the meetings market,” says Anne Marie Moebes, Executive Vice President of Acclaim Meetings, a planner which is focused on groups of 250 to 2,500. She adds, “They’ve followed what resorts offer with onsite meetings coordinators. Audio visual and food and beverage are normally a large part of the cost of the meeting, and that’s included on a cruise, so there is tremendous value.”
Ken Muskat, an Executive Vice President with MSC Cruises, says its four newest ships feature 1,600 seat theatres with no pillars or obstructions, significantly upping the size of meetings that can be accommodated. A new private island that will come online at the end of 2017 will provide more opportunities to offer customized events from team-building games to concerts. The new ships also feature dedicated meeting rooms, in addition to lounges that can be converted. Muskat says, an added plus of cruise meetings is it is easy to bring along the family cost-effectively, and being on a ship fosters stronger bonds between attendees.
Reported by: Forbes.com
