There is one thing the cruise brands such as P&O Cruises, Cunard, Costa Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village, Holland America Line – plus others – have in common. They are all owned by the world’s largest cruise conglomerate.

The holding company is US-based Carnival Corporation, the undisputed biggest name in cruising and arguably the world’s largest holiday company.

So when the rare chance arises to interview the man at the top, I knew it was an opportunity too good to turn down.

The chief executive officer Micky Arison is a legend in the world of cruising, heading an organisation which runs 95 ships and has no less than 11 more on order.

His company, even in recession-hit 2009, achieved a net profit of almost $2 billion on revenues of more than $13 billion.

We’re talking a serious global industry player with market-leading cruise lines across America, Europe and Australia together with moves to tap into in the potentially burgeoning leisure travel markets of China and India.

When he speaks, the industry sits up and takes notice, so being granted an audience with Mr Arison was a great honour.

As part of a wide-ranging interview, he made it very clear that customers will never find a better time than now to book a cruise.

Prices are at an all-time low in the wake of the global recession and his clear advice to anyone considering either trying out a cruise holiday for the first time, or considering returning, then act now.

Prices as low as they’ll get

“Pricing is purely a function of demand,” he told me. “Last year when people were hearing all these horror stories about another great depression, a lot of people postponed or deferred their vacation. I am hoping that most of those people are coming back into the market because most people feel that with today’s stresses, they are entitled to take their holidays.

“I’ve been saying for months no that cruise vacation pricing is about as low as it’s going to get and those who want a great bargain should book now because it’s not going to get any cheaper.”

Mr Arison believes the cruise holiday option has been made even more attractive due to tour operators reducing the number of holidays they have to sell in order to maintain prices.

As part of a wide-ranging interview conducted in the genteel surroundings of Claridges Hotel in London, he confirmed that Carnival Corporation continues to have a strong focus on selling cruises from the UK and the rest of Europe with new ships

His trip to Europe coincided with the launch of Costa Cruises flagship Costa Deliziosa, which will initially run cruises from Dubai, and a new vessel for German line Aida Cruises.

These will be followed in April with the introduction of P&O Cruises’ new superliner Azura, to be named by ballet star Darcey Bussell in Southampton in April.

October will then see the introduction of Queen Elizabeth for Cunard Line, again with a ceremony in Southampton.

New ship planned for Princess

While Mr Arison believes the pace of growth in new ship orders will slow over the next few years, he confirmed that an announcement of new ship for Princess Cruises was imminent on the back of the confirmation last month of a another vessel for Carnival Cruise Lines.

“Clearly the UK is a critical market for us. We have two of the most powerful brands in the UK and we will want to leverage that,” he said. “Princess also does very well from the UK and to some degree all our brands do well out of the UK as do our competitors. So it’s a market that brings very significant numbers of passengers.”

He also made it clear that Carnival had no intention of seeking to match or better in terms of size rival Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas – currently the largest cruise ship in the world.

“Oasis will attract a lot of people but it’s not what we do,” said Mr Arison. “We are not going to try to emulate what they do. We are going to try to keep on doing what we do and do it better.”

What he made emphatically clear is that cruising, particularly from Europe, has been able to ride the recessionary storms of the past year or so and emerge in remarkably good shape, built around the pillars of value for money and maintaining high standards of on board service, food and entertainment.

And that’s hard to argue against.

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Phil Davies

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Posted in Industry, Interviews