10 February 2011 – In January, Royal Caribbean’s New Zealand office logged its busiest booking month since the local arm of the global cruise business opened in April, 2010.

Last month the company reported the highest volume of calls received in a month and the most bookings across all three of its cruise brands - Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara Club Cruises.

Adam Armstrong, Royal Caribbean Cruises commercial manager for Australia and New Zealand, believes that the buoyant results reflect the increased local appetite for new choices in cruising.

“New Zealanders truly appreciate a broader range of cruising choices close to home,” says Adam. “Booking momentum picked up very quickly after Christmas and continues at a healthy pace. Encouragingly, we’ve seen booking lead times continue to move further out, with a good proportion of bookings to travel in late 2011 and early 2012. The arrival of two more of our ships, Radiance of the Seas and Celebrity Century, in the region later this year has really captured New Zealanders’ imaginations. Kiwis are particularly enthusiastic about Celebrity Century, as several cruises on this five star superliner originate from Auckland.”

While sales for local cruises on South Pacific and Australasia dominated the bookings, there’s also strong demand for Asian, European and Caribbean cruises. Sales for the world’s biggest and most innovative cruise ships, Allure of the Seas (which featured on TV3’s Campbell Live programme in December) and Oasis of the Seas, have been particularly strong, with Australians and New Zealanders clearly wanting to see the two of the wonders of the world for themselves.

The robust performance was aided by several special offers released in January. There have been early bird sales on selected Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises sailings – which are still available until 28 February - as well as onboard credit and cabin upgrade offers on Azamara Club Cruises.

January’s positive results herald a big year ahead for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises in New Zealand. Capacity will be tripled in the 2011-12 season with the arrival of Radiance of the Seas in October 2011– the first 21st century ship to be home-ported in Australasia, joining sister ship Rhapsody of the Seas in the Royal Caribbean brand – and the return of Celebrity Cruises to the region, with Australasia’s highest-rated cruise ship Celebrity Century arriving in November.

ENDS

BUDGET 2012:
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