Aus popular for Oceania
OCEANIA Cruises’ 2024-2025 Tropics & Exotics Collection, which opened for sale on
Thu (CW 31 Oct), has already generated a lot of interest, local Vice President Jason Worth has told Cruise Weekly, as the line looks to raise brand awareness in Australia.
The new Collection of 157 voyages spans every continent, including Australia, with itineraries ranging from seven to 200 days in length.
Already shaping up as one of the most popular is the 34-night Sydney to Sydney Australian circumnavigation over the Christmas & holiday season, Worth said.
In addition to offering Australians the chance to catch up on domestic travel they may have missed out on the past few years, he said the itinerary is also proving popular with international guests.
“Americans and Brits, they love Australia, and for those who come, it’s kind of a bucket list item for them,” Worth explained.
“It’s not just that chance to see Sydney, it’s round-trip from Sydney, and they can see all of Australia, at least on the coast.”
With the local market of great importance to Oceania, the cruise line is also forging local partnerships to raise brand awareness within the market, and tempt Aussies onto ships.
This has seen Oceania sign on to be a presenting partner of
The Good Food Guide and its The Good Food Guide Awards in 2023.
The partnership will see Oceania present awards for Chef of The Year & Wine List of the Year at the awards events in Melbourne and Sydney later this month.
“We’re very excited about this partnership... there’s a lot of synergies between our exceptional culinary offering onboard, and what they do with The Good Food Guide, and what that represents,” Worth said.
“Everyone’s talking about the culinary aspect onboard their ships, but that’s our leading brand pillar, fine dining on board, so we really want to do what we can locally to make sure everyone’s aware.”
Other recent Aussie partnerships include Oceania’s association with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) - another brand pillar which is hardwired into the fabric of the cruise line.
“The great thing about that is we have some great artwork onboard our ships, and it’s all hand-curated by our founder, Frank Del Rio, so I think his love of art is kind of built into the DNA of the brand,” Worth said.
“For guests that are interested in art, and might be patrons of the MCA, it’s a nice chance for them to take a look at what we do with the art program.”
With Regatta on her way to Australia, Oceania will be looking to engage the trade to help with their brand engagement mission.
“When Regatta’s here in Dec, we’re actually going to have an opportunity for guests to come to the Museum and see the latest exhibit,” Worth enthused.
“We were able to bring a few groups of trade on to different sailings in Aug and Jul of this year in Europe, so that went well, and then we actually have some guests on the Darwin sailing.
“As we proceed with the season locally, if we do have the opportunity to fill some cabins last minute, we will definitely take advantage of that.”