THE CRUISE INDUSTRY IN THE POST-PANDEMIC RECOVERY: TO INNOVATE AND STAND OUT
Eighteen international cruise lines, from the smallest expeditions to the largest fleets, put their trust in Cruising Journal in its debut issue last January. This is an important recognition, rewarding the professionalism and commitment our editorial staff has put into promoting the growing cruise industry.
But it was work done also, and above all, during the pandemic, showing that we believed in the project and that we were prepared in the best possible way to assist the cruise industry during its difficult phases of resumption of operations.
A thank you is therefore in order, but rather represents a pleasure and not just a duty. To those who were willing to contribute to the realization of the project, affirming their presence in the first issue of the magazine, marking for some the confirmation of the fruitful collaboration of the last few years, and others the beginning of a new relationship of trust and projects in common.
Thanks are also due to all those who have been involved in making it happen, from the authors to the editorial staff, from those who send us photos and reports daily, and to the institutions who, together with the shipyards, travel agents, and port authorities, were pleased to receive our “physical presence” alongside the daily web-based information to which they had already been accustomed for years.
The month of March marks an important transition in cruise itineraries, and is often a showcase for so much news, from the presentation of destinations to the launching of
new ships, quite numerous again this year. The upcoming Seatrade Cruise Global, to be held this year in Fort Lauderdale, will mark this transition by offering a showcase for updates and debate unparalleled in the international arena.
New this year will be FnB@Sea, dedicated to the onboard food and beverage industry. These will be intense days, bringing together key figures in the industry and providing excitement and new professional opportunities. For Cruising Journal, it will be a real honor to be among the few global publications sponsoring Seatrade Cruise Global, an opportunity for growth but above all representing the desire to contribute to this valuable event.
The spring will give us the opportunity to get to know many new ships. The greatest expectation, we cannot deny, is related to those companies with whom we collaborate most closely and with whom we have shared communication and promotion efforts, in the belief that they are cutting-edge and innovative brands, which we are proud to assist. In temporal order, at the end of April, we will be on SH Diana, Swan Hellenic’s third unit, whose christening is scheduled to take place in Amsterdam on the 4th of May. It’s a project that has taken the historical legacy of the English Swan Hellenic and transformed it into a new cultural expedition product. In July, the long-awaited Explora I, the first-born of a new Msc Cruises group fleet, will finally take off from Southampton for a season debut in Northern Europe. The spotlight will then turn to Silver Nova, which will become a flagship of the Silversea Cruises fleet in August, revolutionizing the concept of sustainability and offering a completely new design to the brand’s elegance.
The cruise industry, beyond ship launches whose construction had been decided before the pandemic, seems to be in general recovery. All markets are not equal and we are seeing different developments. Economic crisis, geopolitical difficulties, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict all lead to a sense of destabilization that every brand has to deal with in some way.
But there is also a sense of optimism in the industry and, above all, a great desire to embark on new paths and new services, and necessary innovation in terms of environmental and cultural sustainability as well. An innovation that is symbolic of a willingness to improve, to always build something different, and to have engaging and novel options to offer its guests.
A constructive competition that only adds value and quality to the cruise product with characteristics that allow us to strive more and more to convey that, although differentiated according to nationality and other aspects, we are one in the heterogeneity and peculiarities of “our world”.