NCLH Aussie expansion

NORWEGIAN Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) plans to boost the size of its Australian business this year and is appointing a dedicated sales team for Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Cruise Weekly can exclusively reveal.

The Oceania and Regent sales teams will be split in two from Mar, and each will have a vp sales and dedicated regional bdms.

Previously vp sales for both brands, Lisa Pile will concentrate on Regent while a mystery “high profile” sales person will head up the Oceania Cruises team.

The strategy will see the company’s Australian headcount increase by five and is part of the goal to grow its Aussie business by 50% this year, on the back of a 30% boost in 2016.

“We had our core business which was manageable with one joint team but the business has grown so dramatically... having dedicated people to sell them is the most sensible thing to do at this point,” Steve Odell, svp and md Asia Pacific of NCLH told CW.

NCLH is looking to take a big share of business homeporting out of Sydney when Norwegian Jewel arrives in Nov.

Other drivers of growth for the business include the capacity boost from the addition of Seven Seas Explorer in Jul, which was “pretty much full” last year, along with Sirena’s debut in Apr.

Australia is the highest yielding market for NCLH and the region takes the cake for the fastest growing market, Odell explained.

“The company looks at us in a very positive way because we’re not only bringing high prices but we’re bringing early booking curve,” he said.

The NCLH office in Sydney opened in 2015.