New Mega-Liners Cruise Into The Corporate Market

<B> New Mega-Liners Cruise Into The Corporate Market</B>

By Chris Davis

As cruise lines continue to introduce new and larger ships, they also are including meetings amenities and facilities designed to reach past the incentive market and compete with hotels for larger corporate meetings and trade shows.

These mega-liners, several of which will be introduced in 1999, are built to attract the corporate planner in two ways. The ships will have enough versatility of conference space to include breakout rooms and trade show space, and also offer hotel-style amenities, including a variety of dining and entertainment options under a single all-inclusive price.

The challenge for the cruise lines is to convince planners that a cruise is a viable and cost-effective setting for a serious meeting. As they present their case to planners, the mega-liners are Exhibit A.

The largest of all the liners will be Royal Caribbean International's 142,000-ton, 3,100-passenger Voyager of the Seas, due to start sailing in November. The ship's meeting space allows it to accommodate what past liners couldn't, said Mary Lynch, director of group and incentive sales for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises.

"With the introduction of the Voyager, we will attract more meetings," Lynch said. "It all depends on the facilities you have to offer on board, and we have a whole area of the ship that's dedicated to conference center space."

Voyager's meeting space will include a 400-capacity conference room that can be split into smaller rooms, a 60-person presentation room with video monitors and other audiovisual equipment, and a 50-person soundproof board room that includes teleconferencing capability and a built-in sound system.

Incentive and meeting business accounts for 15 percent of Royal Caribbean's sales, a number the line is betting Voyager can help lift. "The meetings market is something we've always gone after, but you have to be able to accommodate them. We have space for groups from 20 to 1,000, but when meeting planners are looking for breakout rooms, you need to have enough conference space and public rooms during the day. Some of that is limited by the size of the ship or the way the ships are built," Lynch said.

The cruise lines also are moving away from regimented dining times and into a more fluid environment, with some liners offering 24-hour restaurant service. Regimented dining "isn't as accommodating as a hotel would be," said Josephine Kling, president and co-founder of meetings cruise agency Landry & Kling in Miami. "Opening more outlets on board addressed the need to offer choices."

A wide variety of dining options and times is more attractive to a planner who doesn't want to build a meeting around the available dinner times, she noted.

Voyager of the Seas also will offer three themed dining areas, in response to planners' interest in different ven-ues, Lynch said.

"The larger ships are the most noticeable trend in the industry right now," Kling said. "As ships get larger, you have more choices of things--varied dining opportunities, more entertainment choices. And when you have more choices, you're more likely to be satisfied."

Disney Cruise Lines' 15,000-sq.-ft. Disney Magic, introduced last year, offers a rotation-dining concept and adult-oriented nightclubs. "You could have a different dining experience each night on board," said George Aguel, vice president of sales and services for Walt Disney Attractions.

The larger ships also provide for uniformity of cabin space, so that everyone involved with the meeting can get a cabin with an ocean view.

Cruises also can provide a change of pace, Kling said. "The challenge for most planners is how to top last year's program. It's wise to mix in a cruise to the rotation of cities. The percentage of American adults who have cruised is under 10 percent, so this is something that perks people's interest."

Cruise ships also often offer more entertainment options than a typical hotel or resort.

"There's always the main lounge show, movies and bars and sometimes a casino," Kling said. "With the larger ships, you might find two main lounges and shows. Even in the nicest resorts, a planner can't expect to have entertainment built in. And you're not paying hundreds of extra dollars for a band."

Norwegian Cruise Line will debut the 78,000-ton, 2,000-passenger Norwegian Sky in August and relaunch the lengthened Norwegian Majesty, which will increase by 100 feet and 400 berths, in October. Cindy Wolf, the line's director of corporate and incentive sales, said she has made inroads into the meetings market by stressing the all-inclusive nature of cruise pricing.

"All our newer ships have meeting space capability, and that's definitely contributing to seeing more meetings at sea. But more importantly, meeting planners are recognizing the fact that a cruise can be more affordable than holding your meeting at a land resort," Wolf said. "It's taken a long time for the cruise industry to convey that to planners, because planners look at the ships as a vacation experience."

The all-inclusive pricing also reduces the planner's workload, Wolf said, since only one supplier has to be negotiated with for all facets of the meeting.

Wolf said that NCL's confirmed meetings bookings are up 30 percent this year over 1998. "This is the first time ever we've really focused on meetings. We're going to meeting trade shows. As more corporations try meetings at sea, we get more popular. We've still got a ways to go as an industry, but we're getting a voice now, and we haven't had one in the past."

Other large liners scheduled to set sail in 1999 include Carnival Cruise Lines' 2,750-passenger Carnival Triumph and Princess Cruises' 78,000-ton Sea Princess.

Kling cautioned that despite the increase in available rooms, planners shouldn't expect to see cruise meeting prices drop. Still, prices may not increase very much either, she said.

For many meetings, "the cruise industry is probably the most affordable option," she said. "There's a lot more attention now to provide on-board shopping, so the lines have the opportunity to take in revenue other than through fares."

Kling, whose company publishes a planner's guide to business at sea, said cruise meetings require about the same time to plan as hotel meetings do. "Most planners have a timeline, and you don't have to work any farther ahead than you do with hotels. With a large group of 300 to 500, call at least a year ahead to ensure that you'll get uniform space. With a small group, you can take your time." A chartered cruise, though, needs 18 to 24 months of lead time.

Even with the increased emphasis on meetings at sea, the incentive market is still the cruise lines' bread and butter. Aguel said that while the Disney Magic and the 2,400-passenger Disney Wonder, due to set sail in August, are equipped with meeting space, incentive trips are still Disney's primary corporate target. "Most of our corporate business so far has been incentive-oriented," he said.

Even for that market, though, cruise liners need meeting space. "At least 90 percent of the incentive trips are including at least one meeting," Wolf said. "Corporations have all their top people on board at the same time, and they want to take advantage of that.