“Rethink, rebuild, reconstruct” was how Michael Goh, president of Dream Cruises, one of the three brands under Genting Cruise Lines, summed up the company’s strategy in sailing through the Covid storm.
Genting Cruise Lines’ World Dream was the first ship in the world to resume cruises during the pandemic, starting with Taiwan in July 2020, followed by Singapore the same year. And on July 30, Dream Cruises’ Genting Dream became the first cruise ship to restart operations in Hong Kong with her maiden Super Seacation voyage.
Bookings for sailings have been strong – Taiwan with 91 sailings from July 26 to May 9, 2021 had 94,000 guests, while 115,000 guests were on Singapore’s 93 sailings guests from November 6 to June 13, 2021. “In fact, now we already hit 230,000 cruisers, from Singapore alone 130,000,” said Goh.
He said bookings for the Hong Kong sailings are “looking excellent”, a testimony that people are gaining confidence in cruising.
Speaking at Episode 5 of WiT Travel Roadshow, he also shared some of the key milestones of Dream Cruises’ in the last year (see chart below).
Covid has also brought about a change in the cruiser demographics. “When the pandemic started, almost 60% of our cruisers were aged between 20 and 40. Pre-pandemic, they were mostly in the 40s to 60s, who contributed about 60% of the market.”
Goh noted a significant change in the market mix brought on by the crisis – more millennials, who previously had not considered cruising as part of their getaway, are taking to the sea to spend their vacations. To hold to this segment in a post-Covid world, the company will offer them “lifestyle experience, wellness with fitness instructors on board, as well as tech and sustainable products”.
With contactless tech playing such an important role to ensure safe cruising during the pandemic, Goh said Dream Cruises is providing passengers with apps where they can use to check the programme, look at the menu, settle bills, communicate with their friends on board, share locations and more.
Guests are also issued with TRACEY, a wearable token used for the purpose of monitoring social distancing and contact tracing.
Goh said technology would be a main feature in Global Dream, which will introduce the next generation of mega cruising, when added to join the Dream Cruises’ fleet in the last quarter of 2022. The ship is currently being built in Germany by MV Werften.
“This ship has a lot of high technology – high speed WiFi , 65-inch TV in every cabin that could provide good gaming to prepare for a younger market.”
Distribution mix has also changed. Goh said direct sales now make up 40% to 50% of total bookings. “Obviously, this is also due to many of the distribution factors that are not in full operation. But we also see that those on traditional platforms are into digital platforms as well. It’s a good thing because for our business, both B2C and B2B are important.”
With sustainability being a hot topic right now and cruising coming under the spotlight, along with aviation, Goh said that Dream Cruises is committed to it, and has environmentally-friendly policies in place. Its marine division is working with international organisations in adhering to sustainable practices such in areas of treating solid waste and bio treatment on board the ships – all waste disposed on land.
“So there’s a lot of things that we do and will continue to do because the ocean is where we operate the business.”
On the commitment to offset greenhouse emissions on the ship and the setting of a goal to achieve this, as some cruise companies have done, Goh’s replied: “That’s part of the work that our team is doing. We are committed. We still haven’t got a figure yet, but essentially that’s the goal that we’re working towards.”
• Watch the video of the interview here.
• Featured image credit (Dream Cruises’ World Dream): Dream Cruises
