Luxury Cruise Lines Add New Ports and Excursions, Not Ships
Photo Credit: Cruisers on the Seabourn Odyssey. Seabourn
Skift Take
Luxury cruise lines are taking a different approach to brand building than their mainstream and river cruise rivals. A new focus on excursions and fresh experiences is helping them to attract luxury travelers who want something new.
Mainstream cruise lines and river cruise lines are in the midst of a building boom. But luxury and small-ship luxury lines are focusing instead on incremental improvement to their ships and diversifying excursions available to guests in port.
As the quality of onboard cruise product improves across the board, luxury lines are positioning themselves based on experiences both on and off the ship.
"Old world luxury has an appeal to a smaller and smaller group of people," Larry Pimentel, CEO of Azamara Club Cruises, told Skift. "Not that it’s bad, but it’s different. It wasn’t as enriching and rich in values, what people look fo
