News Letter - May 2004
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More Kudos for Seabourn. In a
survey conducted by the luxury lifestyle publication Departures, the magazine`s
readers, who are American Express Platinum and
Centurion Card holders ,scored The Yachts of Seabourn
tops among all
This week GOOD READ -
HALW's new ship the "Westerdam"
- review by Steve Bloss. "Pride of Aloha" - coming up next month NCL's next inaugural event the Pride of Aloha which will be inspected by three of the Worldwide team Steve Bloss & Jim Huff on a short cruise out of Los Angeles and Jim Castle out of San Francisco. Look for their report on this the latest Norwegian Hawaiian product. Meeting the Worldwide Staff: It is always a pleasure to meet up with our clients, many of whom have become friends as well as business colleagues over the years. Not being a company that does intrusive calls to your business premises most of us connect at trade shows and new ship inaugurals. If your attending an inaugural on one of our cruise partners ships there is a better than good chance one of the Worldwide team will be there also, so drop us an email and let us know your plans and we will try to "hook" up with you on-board. This year our team will be at the following Trade Shows where you will find us either working the booth or "working" the cocktail party scene. Look for the guys at Toronto at the CMITS, a little later they will be in Chicago at the IT&ME Show and then in late November they will be in Barcelona for the European show, EIBTM. This is a great show and Barcelona is a great city to hold it in. We are having a mini war over who is going to attend this show as everyone in the office wants to be there. In case your not familiar with Barcelona check out the recent Newsweek report on the city and its potential for the meeting and convention industry at - Barcelona.
Who are you going to meet on your cruise? Far to many people, even "informed" people have the perception that most of the people sailing on your average cruise ship are "old, retired" folk. However, this is simply not the case at all as there’s really no such thing as a “typical” cruise vacationer anymore. From rich and famous celebrities to the family next door, all kinds of people enjoy cruises these days. A recent analysis of the cruise market for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) by TNS Plog Research, provides a snapshot of today’s cruise buyer as a married Baby Boomer who has a current passport, loves to travel and does so frequently. Baby Boomers are the heart of the cruise market. Thirty-four percent of cruisers are between the ages of 35 and 54. Three in four (76 percent) cruisers are married, and two in five (44 percent) are college graduates. Only one in four (25 percent) cruisers is retired. Cruisers are frequent travelers. They average 3.8 vacation trips a year and 18.6 nights away from home. Recent cruisers (those who have taken a cruise in the past three years) average 4.5 leisure trips a year and 20.8 nights out of town. Cruisers allocated nearly twice as much to leisure travel as the average vacationer – an average of $4,083 for all cruisers and $5,135 for recent cruisers. Most cruise vacationers go back to sea again and again. The average cruiser has taken three (2.8) cruises in his lifetime, and two of them (1.6) occurred within the past three years. Recent cruisers are among the most venturesome of leisure travelers. They seek new experiences, search for undiscovered destinations and are quite comfortable in other cultures. The potential for more international travel is especially strong among cruisers, as 61 percent have a current passport and are less likely to take a short trip but more likely (81 percent) to take a long vacation (four or more nights). Carnival have been saying for some time now that they carry more "older" folk than the other Carnival family ships.. so there's another misperception shot down in flames.
The moral to all this - You need to be offering cruises to your clients.. the people who are taking these trips, the winner, the participants, are generally exactly the group describes above and they want to cruise.
Mickey Mouse Cruises is coming to a port near you - if you live on the West Coast. According to press reports the Disney Magic will depart the Caribbean in 2005 to offer a series of cruises from California as part of the celebrations for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary. Starting in the spring, Disney Magic will sail twelve, seven-night cruises from Los Angeles to Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán. Whilst Disney execs. admit nothing is firm yet, they do admit that they want to broaden their cruise horizon. With Disney currently negotiating for the construction of two new Panama Canal capable newbuilds of approximately 90,000gt it makes sense to start introducing their cruise products to a wider audience.
Captain Cook Cruises One of Worldwide's small ship cruise partners plans to grow its market in Asia following this month's sales blitz of Korea. The 34 year old company operates three-to-seven-night cruises around Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef, as well as a traditional paddle wheeler on the Murray River. The company recently hired a new national sales manager, Sherilyn Robinson (ex-Air Pacific) who is expected to bring her expertise and contacts to the companies marketing efforts to gain further exposure and market share in the Asian market.
MSC get serious about the US cruise market; MSC
Recently
Editorial:
The Jones Act A considerable number of our clients have raised the question as to how the "Jones Act" effects them in terms of their clients embarking and disembarking during the duration of a cruise at an intermediary port of call. Take a recent situation which applied to one of our clients - They had a group taking a cruise which was going to start in Miami and go to the Mexican Riviera finally returning to Miami. The President of the company was embarking in Miami solely for the initial festivities and the corporate banquet/prize giving, his intention was to then disembark in Key West and fly to Europe for a series of meetings. It came as a surprise to our client to learn that this was not going to be possible because of the "Jones Act", he was not going to be allowed to disembark at another US Port until the ship had gone "foreign" after which he could then disembark when the ship returned a US Port (which in effect is what happens to almost every cruise passage) or, as he chose to do, disembark at the first Mexican port the ship hit. The Jones-Shafroth Act (the Jones Act as it is known) was signed into law on March 2, 1917, by President Woodrow Wilson. Even today, close to 90 years later, many provisions of the Act a very pertinent especially those dealing with Seamen's health, accident and disability benefits. So what is the "Jones Act" and how does it influence us as resellers of cruises? The Jones Act is the everyday name for Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (46 U.S.C. 883; 19 CFR 4.80 and 4.80b). Its intent is very simple, to promote a healthy U.S-Flag fleet and protect that fleet from unfair foreign competition, the Jones Act requires that cargo moving between U.S. ports be carried in a vessel that was built in the United States and is owned (at least 75 percent) by American citizens or corporations. Since the Jones Act vessels are registered in the United States, our general labor and immigration laws require that crewmembers be American citizens or legal aliens. (In fact most maritime nations have an equivalent to the Jones Act - (50 countries). To reduce the terminology to something the layman can understand - this is termed "cabotage" and applies not only to shipping but to airlines and other forms of international transportation. The statute covering cabotage as it applies to passengers is known as the Passenger Services Act (PSA) and became law in 1886. Does the Jones Act apply to passengers? The Act, no; the principle, yes. What is known as the Passenger Vessel Act (PSA) of 1886 (46 U.S.C. 289) states that “no foreign vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States, under penalty of $200 for each passenger so transported or landed.” Another question we are frequently asked is, can the Jones act be waived or suspended? the answer is Yes, but only during a national emergency. However, over time, a number of exceptions have been made, for example Canadian vessels may transport passengers between Rochester and Alexandria Bay, New York and between southern Alaska and U.S. ports until an American carrier enters the markets. Similarly, foreign vessels may transport passengers between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland as long as a U.S. carrier does not provide such service. Foreign-flagged cruise ships may carry passengers from a U.S. port as long as they return them to the same port (a "cruise to nowhere"). Foreign vessels may also call at intermediate U.S. ports as long as no passenger permanently leaves the vessel at those ports and the vessel makes at least one call at a foreign port. While the PSA prevents foreign cruise ships from carrying passengers directly from Alaska and the West Coast to Hawaii and from competing for Hawaiian inter-island cruise traffic, a considerable number of foreign cruise ships do visit Hawaii in any given year. American passengers on foreign cruise ships to Hawaii must board in another country—typically, Vancouver, Canada or Encinada, Mexico. These ships cannot pick up a passenger in one U.S. port and drop off the passenger in another U.S. port. However, after arriving from Canada or Mexico, they may tour the islands and drop off passengers in Hawaii. They may then pick up new passengers, tour the islands, and return to Canada or Mexico. As a consequence, these "foreign" cruise ships made approximately over 300 calls in Hawaii ports during 2002. In October 1997, federal legislation was passed that permits a person to operate a foreign-built cruise ship in the U.S. coastwise trade provided that the person had entered a binding contract for the delivery of two U.S.-built cruise ships. The first ship must be delivered no later than January 1, 2005, and the second ship must be delivered no later than January 1, 2008. Moreover, in Hawaii, only the existing cruise ship operator may operate a foreign-built ship among the islands unless a new U.S.-built cruise ship is placed into regular service outside of Hawaii. This legislation makes it possible to temporarily employ a foreign-built vessel among the Hawaiian Islands despite the Passenger Services Act while new U.S.-built cruise ships are constructed. In the mid- and late 1990s, there was a debate about the continued need for the nation's cabotage laws, key among which is the Jones Act. A group calling itself the Jones Act Reform Coalition (JARC), which was claiming service shortfalls in every part of the nation made an unsuccessful effort to repeal the law. As it later turned out, the JARC criticisms of the US Flag fleet galvanized the industry into a coalition that won statements of support for the Jones Act from a majority of the House, the Clinton (and now Bush) Administrations, the Department of Defense, to the extent that the JARC was disbanded in 2000. The situation in other parts of the world are somewhat more confusing. In Europe the European Economic Union has indicated that it intends to make the carriage of passengers and goods between members countries as open as its frontiers (another story). To date this is not the case and each country appears to have its own interpretation of how the cabotage laws are applied. For example, we recently had a charter doing a site inspection on a ship that was traveling between contiguous ports of one of the Atlantic Coast EEC countries - this was no problem. A couple of weeks later a different group wanted to do the same thing on a cruise ship traveling between Mediterranean ports of another EEC country - and this was not possible.
A somewhat similar and linked question we are constantly being asked is: How can they take advantage of TAX FREE CRUISING; Since Norwegian Cruise Lines intend to introduced the two US hulled ships they are currently fitting out to the US cruise market they are able to operate itineraries between contiguous US ports as well as foreign ports utilizing the aforementioned exemption. This then is the current situation - its is confusing to the layman, hence a substantial number of our clients have asked us to define exactly what this means to them and their clients as far as tax implications are concerned for their clients programs sailing on the NCL Hawaiian itineraries. As NCL have a head start on this marketing advantage, I am going to include their Q & A on the subject as it seems to cover all the pertinent points very clearly. Needless to say, it is always a wise idea to do your own due diligence and consult a tax specialist before committing to a program of this nature.
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cruise lines. The online survey separated cruise lines
into categories of Large Cruise Lines and Small Cruise Lines. The
Yachts of Seabourn scored 97.85, the best result
achieved by any line in either category. In case your are like me and
wonder how they come up with these survey results - here's how this one was
conducted...The survey was posted on the magazine`s password-protected website
for three months. Over 1,040 global nominees in every category of travel,
hospitality and accommodation were available for review. Scores in 23 categories
were tabulated by American Express from over 51,000 responses and the results
were published in the magazine`s May/June 2004 issue.
hired
32-year industry veteran Rick Sasso to
lead the company’s US efforts as President and CEO of MSC Cruises USA. His
recent selection of his team to run the US operation reads like a who's who of
the cruise industry, all are seasoned veterans and share a history of working
together at Celebrity Cruises. Ares Michaelides will serve as Senior
Vice-President and chief operating office, Michaelides held senior roles in
finance, marketing and brand planning at Celebrity and more recently HALW.
Jim Henwood takes the VP Sales and Marketing, he worked closely with Sasso at
Celebrity for more than a decade, Henwood also managed a customer service and
creative services department for Celebrity and Royal Caribbean International his
other positions included VP Sales positions at Renaissance Cruises and Royal
Olympic Cruises. Steve Hirshan, who was VP Sales and Marketing for MSC
Cruises USA, moves to be VP Passenger Services and will overseeing customer
service, reservations and travel agent relations. The VP of Revenue planning is
Cy Hopkins, who handled yield management, reservations and groups at Celebrity
and more recently Renaissance, Royal Olympic and First European Cruises. Bob
Keesler, a hotel industry veteran who most recently was guest satisfaction at
Celebrity, becomes MSC's VP Hotel and Marine Operations. Irv Mednick was
appointed director of IT, Mednick built Celebrity's reservations system and
lately worked in an executive technology role at Silversea Cruises.