State of the Industry Liveblog 2017

Hello and welcome to the 2017 liveblog from the State of the Industry panel from Seatrade Cruise Global.

The event is set to begin at 0930 eastern time.

 

Archived Live Blog

Greg Dragonetti

That does it for this live blog. Make sure to keep checking
our twitter twitter.com/cruiseind for updates from the show floor.

Thanks!

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Fain: historically it’s the bad things that keeps us up at night. The pace of change is extraordinary.

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Donald: We have things going so good, I hope these guys don;t mess it up. (huge laughs and applause)

And geopolitical tensions. Really the only things that prevents is when people are prevented from traveling.

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Donald: We have things going so good, I hope these guys don;t mess it up. (huge laughs and applause)

And geopolitical tensions. Really the only things that prevents is when people are prevented from traveling.

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Del Rio: I have the youngest fleet, so it’s geopolitical events. I wake up and hope there’s no headline news.

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Vago: Shipping is a 24×7 business. (so true. I know from experiance)

Vago: We are looking at the brighter side. You must have the humility and ability to look at the other side of things.

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Final question: What’s keeping you up at night.

Fain: Not too much. Maybe it’s excitement. Ind has found a
groove. We’ve done a good job communication what cruising’s about.

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Rio: All of us has gone to Cuba. It can be a major force in the cruise business. I hope the administration sees this. They are pro business.

Donald: Its in the best interest to bring people together. Who knows what the administration will bring us. Like Frank, I want the embargo lifted.

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Rio: The Trump administration is good for businesses (not sure everyone else on stage shares his view).

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Future Policies enacted in the government:

Donald: Too early to tell. We pay taxes everywhere in the world. We have to wait and see.

Vago: I don’t think the problem is in Washington. From the regulatory size, it’s not Washington.

Fain: Governments are unpredictable today. People are seeing the eco benefit that we’re contributing to society

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What’s driving the business?

Donald: People love cruising. People cant stop talking about it. And we now do a reasonable job promoting it

Rio: Customers are happy, we’ve had the ‘Trump’ effect.Economy is good.

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Our objective isn’t to prove we were right, its’ to avoid in the first place. It provided a calming impact to the dialogue going on.

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We shouldn’t be so naive to think that It couldn’t happen here. We have to stop thinking people won’t stop acting like a human onboard

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Now talking about waste water purification standard. Our engineers like to show off by drinking the water.

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Now talking about putting scrubbers on ships. All ships have these now as a way to cope with the new emission regulations in the US.

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A simple solution is to keep them at cold temperatures then keep them onboard until they can get to a recycling center.

I like to state, we have the coolest garbage in the world

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ISM states that they have to get rid of it at the next port even if it winds up just in a landfill.

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An example is the wine bottles onboard a ship. They want to crush them and recycle them. Bottles of wine when crushed fosters bacteria.

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All Royal Caribbean ships have an environmental officer. (to be fair, other lines have that)

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To do things line minimizing out co2 footprint. to be more efficient, we save money, provide better for our customers, but we also protect the environment.

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As a base to what the previous speakers talked about, I get to talk about the base of it all.

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Today our biggest threat comes from geopolitical events. These events when they occur, they instantly affect itineraries and by an large, the bottom line

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Fleet expansions is outpacing port infrastructure. As a result the ports become congested.

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Top 4 most important influences in port determination:

Travel agents

Port agents

Excursion Operators

Social Media

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Today should be a very good booking day for us (ref the show storm in the northeast)

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The third quarter is the highest yield you get. That’s because of Alaska and Europe.

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Comparing Baltic yields, where you can get $300 per day whereas Caribbean only get’s you $100

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Talking about how he’s moving as many spaces and outdoor areas lower in the ship so he can go higher with accommodations.

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Vago is discussing Archimedes’ principle, Solas’ safe return to port, and firezones.

You can tell he get’s into this kind of stuff. And it shows. That’s why he has the most cutting edge ships on order.

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Next slide is the orderbook, including other brands. Of course MSC has the most ships on order 😉

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Pointing out the sheer growth in the size of the ships, but how it’s slowed down the past few years, but the orders keep coming through

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Now detailing Ocean platform featuring Ocean medallion.

Has gigabytes behind the scenes powering the guest experiance

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Donald is now going over the different brands and the type of cruises that go onbard those brands

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Innovation is without a guest knowing, they’re part of a community (on a ship) (excellent point)

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I want to tell you how I’m going to approach innovation at Carnival. At Carnival we want to create human connection. And we want to increase it and decrease it.

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At carnival woven into the fabric, is innovation. Donald is now playing the Ocean Medallion video.

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Arnold Donald takes the stage to a roar of applause! He will be discussing Technology and innovation.

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Remember one thing: To be an advocate, to work for every business. To have you voice hear we must act as one!

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In 10 years there’s been a 62% increase in demand for cruising.

No sings of this growth slowing down

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CLIA has been very active in conferences this year. They also released a report to travel agents to detail trends to assist them.

CLIA was also successful with lobbying against to tax increases in ports that would have affected cruise passengers.

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CLIA, FCCA and Hong Kong tourism board are the official sponsors.

Mercy Ships gets a special shout-out. (very nice!)

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Now they’re thanking the sponsors and going over what the game plan will be for the show.

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Event will be a bit different this year. Each “titan of the industry” will each give their presentation THEN they will sit together

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About to take the stage will be CEO’s from the top 4 lines

Arnold Donald (CCL)

Richard Fain (RCL)

Frank Del Rio (NCL)

Pierfrancesco Vago(MSC)

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CruiseInd finally made it to Ft Lauderdale. Make sure to check back later this morning for coverage from the panel.