Arnold At The Wheel
The industry is in a better place ever since Arnold Donald began steering Carnival.
The industry is in a better place ever since Arnold Donald began steering Carnival.
Five years ago, cruise lines were reeling from several highly publicized cruise ship incidents around the globe. [ Ed. Note: — Porthole may or may not have neglected to mention some of those less- sunnier subjects.] Many believed it would take years of incident-free cruise travel and millions of dollars in marketing for cruising to recover its reputation.
The credit for much of that recovery is attributed to the strategies and efforts of one man in particular: Arnold Donald, the president and CEO of Carnival Corporation. Its nine cruise brands — Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Seabourn, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Costa Cruise Line, AIDA Cruises, and P&O Cruises Australia — together control about half the global cruise industry.
Since taking the top job at Carnival Corporation in 2013, Donald has become the very public face of the global cruise industry, charming analysts, guests, travel agents, and the media with his down-to- earth style and straight talk. He even appeared as a guest judge on the TV show Celebrity Apprentice.
And instead of negative news about cruising, Donald quickly started generating positive news stories and television airtime covering the first cruises into Cuba from the United States in almost 50 years, signing a partnership to build cruise ships in China for the burgeoning Chinese cruise market, and producing several new travel TV series. Donald was even able to generate massive media coverage around new technology on his ships by introducing it at CES, the world’s largest technology trade show in Las Vegas.
Donald exudes a cool style on camera and in person. He’s always one of the most anticipated speakers at travel industry events like Cruise 360 and Cruiseworld, which attract thousands of travel agents from around the world. Donald incorporates the fun of a cruise into his onstage appearances, joining in with a chorus of dancers from Carnival Cruise Line onstage one year, or starting a sing-along with the audience, even challenging actress/singer Queen Latifah to a lipsync battle at a recent ship naming.
As Carnival Corporation approaches its 50th birthday in 2022, sustainability is vital for both the 100-plus cruise ships in its fleet and the more than 700 destinations it visits all over the globe.
He’s also taken on the role of inspirational leader for those working in all areas of the travel industry (many of whom are single proprietors or small businesses), encouraging them and sharing his belief that they are part of the higher purpose of bringing the world together through travel. “Never forget the role you play in delivering travel and these higher benefits to the world,” Donald said at a recent travel agent conference.
Donald is one of the few black CEOs of a major global company and has recently started speaking out about the importance of diversity and inclusion for a company’s success. It’s a belief he’s lived at Carnival Corporation, where he’s introduced change throughout his upper management team in the last five years. Integrating new and promoting existing executives ultimately resulted in three women brand presidents and the first black president of a cruise line. Almost half of Carnival Corporation’s Board of Directors are women.
“Arnold is wicked smart and he has an uncanny ability to attract the very best minds to our industry,” says Chief Communications Officer Roger Frizzell. “People want to come here just to be part of his vision and work with him.”
The results? Carnival Corporation stock has doubled in value in the past five years, and global cruising has grown from 21 million cruisers in 2013 to an estimated 28 million in 2018.
Five years in, the focus has subtly shifted from Donald pro- moting cruise in travel forums to being in demand in his own right outside the travel industry. He recently made a guest appearance at a hi-tech conference for Splunk, a data analytics firm, in front of a live audience of 9,000 techies who were all buzzing about taking a cruise. (One attendee said, “Wow, just listening to him and seeing those photos of cruise ships all over the world made me want to take a cruise — I’d never thought about it before!”) Later in the conference, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, another guest speaker and frequent cruiser, drew the winning name not for a computer or a car but a free Carnival Corporation cruise sponsored by Splunk. It was exactly the kind of buzz Donald was aiming for. “My goal is always to get people to just consider a taking a cruise … to have cruise at least enter the conversation when planning their next vacation, and to ultimately get more new people to book a cruise,” he says.
What’s left to do? As Carnival Corporation approaches its 50th birthday in 2022, sustainability is vital for both the 100-plus cruise ships in its fleet and the more than 700 destinations it visits all over the globe. “We want to make the places we visit even better than they were before we got there,” Donald says.
He says that, as a kid, he wanted to be President of the United States, quarterback of his hometown New Orleans Saints, and an astronaut. All at the same time. And while he may not have made all three goals, there’s at least one he still has his sights on.
When asked what he is personally looking forward to, he said, “Space cruising!”