Launching Too Soon?

Last week was a busy week for me, and for the cruise industry in general I think!

This was partly down to P&O Cruises releasing their 2018 program 6 months earlier than they normally would.

Yes you heard me right, 6 months!

Very keen indeed and it’s been met with mixed reviews from my own customer base, probably a 50/50 positive to negative split!

The early birds, and the more organised guests have been praising P&O for allowing them to book much earlier than normal. If it’s a popular or unusual itinerary, the best cabins move very quickly due to the fierce loyalty of P&O’s primarily British client base.

But for others who have enquired or booked with me, have seen it as a desperate attempt by P&O to bring in some extra deposit money as a knock on from some harsh comments and grey cloud atmosphere surrounding some of this years sailings. Indeed the new offering the Britannia pictured above, has come in for some very mixed reviews, and some criticism.

Personally I liked the Britannia and think she is the future of the brand – but hey, it’s each to their own!

So why the super duper early launch for P&O?

There could be a number of reasons:

As mentioned above, this season P&O have come under fire for not delivering their usual quality and standards on some ships which has unboubtedly had an affect on their sales this year, and with competition from their rivals such as Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Fred Olsen among others all having generally good comments and feedback this year with the odd exception….you have to wonder if this is the main reason.

But I doubt it…..

Another reason could be that this early launch has coincided with P&O announcing they are building another big ship – again met with mixed comments due to the size and number of guests, but in a growing industry with a high demand, we can expect nothing other than ships getting bigger. Play the numbers game and it works for them, and us I might add.

Moving on, another reason, and this is one I have concocted myself, and I may be way off base here, is Brexit. With the UK primed to leave the EU in 2018, there is a large level of uncertainty within the travel industry as a whole. Will we have to pay now to travel around Europe? Will we all need new, even more expensive passports? Will it cost us more to travel abroad? The FAQ’s are endless, so I think P&O being a British cruise line, will have one eye on that little chestnut and are preparing in advance.

Finally, and I think the most likely reason from a business point of view, is that P&O may simply be wanting to get their noses in front of the competition sooner rather than later. Nothing like a controversial early release to get tongues wagging, and even if there are haters out there, they are still reading the cruise news, and still looking at P&O’s offers. There will always be one that is tempted by an advert, or offer that didn’t expect to be. If I had a pound for every time I hear the phrase, ‘oh we are so excited, we never expected to be able to go cruising’, or something along those lines, I’d be a millionaire by now! So it may be a case of, any press is good press, for P&O.

There are a few other theories but overall I would imagine it’s done more good than bad, and of course people have booked, so it’s cash flow for P&O which is ultimately what they want.

One thing I would say to P&O though from an agents perspective, and customers for that matter, is, don’t lose sight of the reason you fuel the money into the brand and ships – it’s not all about profit, it’s got to be about service first, you would be nowhere without your customers, so let’s not cut corners eh? And let’s keep the service and quality at the highest possible levels. That’s how we operate, that’s how I operate, and that’s how you need to operate. Keep that in mind, you won’t go far wrong.

Thanks for reading folks, and as always, until next time……………….