Start with unique itineraries and anticipatory service, add a dollop of extra-long deployments, top it with a dash of sustainable natural sourcing. And serve it with a craft liquor or healthier style cocktail. That’s the recipe for success Holland America Line president Gus Antorcha offered up at a media lunch onboard the Nieuw Amsterdam, at Seatrade Cruise Global in Fort Lauderdale this week.

“Our guests have told us they love longer voyages and we see them sell, and so were evolving in a number of ways,” Antorcha said. Facing lots of competition in seven-day Caribbean market, for example, Holland America is shifting to 9+ days that offer “more ports and more time.” Twelve-day capacity is up 41%, allowing Caribbean itineraries to reach the Panama Canal and Cartagena, while capacity in the 50+ day market has doubled.

With airfares rising and airline service deteriorating, the new category of 25-59 day Legendary Voyages, many flying out of US airports, allows customers to “pick a part of the world and just linger.”

Indeed, asked Paul Grigsby, VP Revenue Planning and Analytics, who designed many of the long itineraries, how do you get to Japan on a domestic ticket? Just sail the 53-day Majestic Japan itinerary roundtrip from Seattle, departing Sept. 1, 2024. Or try the “Coral Triangle, Volcanos, and The Great Barrier Reef” itinerary, 28 days beginning January 2025, which covers 7,000 miles, including regions that are home to 30% of the world’s coral, 6,000 species of fish, and all but one species of sea turtle, and two volcanoes. “And we have more in store.”

Still, though, it’s Alaska that lies at the heart of Holland America for many guests. Longer itineraries now reach up into the Arctic Circle, but the core business is still those 7-day-round-trips out of Vancouver. Two new things of interest there are a new focus on certified and sustainable local seafood, and a digitized historical passenger list on which anyone can search for the names of relatives who sailed Holland America out of Europe as they emigrated to America.

As part of Holland America’s “Alaska Up Close” program, it has partnered with Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) to sustainably sourced local seafood. Following an audit last year, Holland America Line was awarded Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) certification — making it the first and only cruise line to achieve this distinguished credential by serving only fresh, certified sustainable and traceable wild Alaska seafood on all six of its ships in Alaska. This summer guests can enjoy a menu of certified sustainable Alaska seafood, as it rolls out several dishes created by Chef Ethan Stowell and Ethan Asmi.

Also for the longer itineraries, plans are in the works to develop the Ocean Bars and Rolling Stone Lounges, to allow for a greater variety of music on longer trips; to add libraries to all ships as they go through drydock; and to evolve the Crow’s Nest area to allow more space for activities there.

F&B Steps Up

The focus on sustainability goes far beyond just fish, though. Over a lunch of sustainable salmon, director of food & beverage strategy Mark Fine told me Holland America is repurposing the thousands of orange peels it creates, dipping them in chocolate and using them as garnishes, including in a new drink being developed for the Alaska market in which orange-peel fish will drift. And a new partnership in Glacier Bay will have “10,000-year-old craft ice” made of glacier chips in drinks as well.

Said he stays om top of food trends by looking not just at cruise competitors but at land restaurants; “we want to make sure we serve what people want,” he noted.

Nowadays he is “playing around with entrees at Canaletto,” testing two new ones as well as two appetizers and one dessert. Healthy options, vegetarian and vegan, and non-alcoholic drinks are all trending – not Shirley Temples but delicious and healthy and lower-calorie cocktails with ingredients like beet and turmeric. And his shopping lists include more craft spirits, craft ryes and bourbons and especially gin. In Alaska, Holland America will be bringing “Juneauper Gin” from Amalga to all six ships, along with high-end mescals and tequilas.

For travel advisors, he noted a post-pandemic trend of vow renewals at sea. “We’ve been seeing three to five of those on every cruise,” he said.

Top Takeways from Day One Panels

* While the travel agency distribution channel went through some hard times, and many small agencies did not survive, those advisors “did not lose their love of selling cruises but migrated into a home-based model that’s really really important,” said Terry Thornton, Princess Cruises SVP of commercial development and integration. “Overall, tourism has roared back,” he said. And with resort prices skyrocketing, there’s an opportunity for the cruise business, which has always been a 40% greater value than a hotel or resort, to hammer home the value of a cruise vacation. The new ships coming online are “packed with features and amenities and very profitable,” and exciting luxury brands like the Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons are bringing massive new audiences. “It’s all good news right now at the public companies,” he said.

* It’s all about forward momentum in 2023, agreed Roger Blum, owner of Cruise & Port Advisors. “It’s been a great Wave season with tremendous optimism. Bookings are there and people are excited.” Also exciting is the new generation of young CEOs at the helm of cruise companies, including Josh Weinstein at Carnival Corp., Harry Sommer at Norwegian Cruise Holdings, and Jason Liberty at Royal Caribbean Group. “The cruise industry has come out of the pause a new industry, with young new leadership.”

* The main reason people pick a cruise is for its destination, said Ugo Savino, director of deployment and itinerary planning at Carnival. While Carnival is famous for those three-day jaunts to the Bahamas, it too is seeing the trend toward longer vacations. In 2014, 2% of its cruises were more than nine days long—and today that number has more than tripled, to 6.6%, including 22-, 24-, and even 31-day itineraries. “For a cruise line like us that serves 5 million passengers a year, that’s a big accomplishment,” he said.

* When it comes to attracting cruise ships, the ball is in the destination’s court, Savino said. “This is a top-down business and ticket revenue drives programs. If there is not demand, the product will struggle—and destinations play a critical role in creating that demand. We sell cruises, but destinations are responsible for selling the demand. It’s up to you to make sure guests are enjoying and fully appreciating everything your destination has to offer. It’s up to you to make sure that we come.”

* Joseph Boschulte, commissioner of the US Virgin Islands, said the country was fortunate to reap the benefits of reopening from the pandemic early, when people really wanted to get out and much of the world was still closed. But they didn’t see a cruise ship for 18 months—something he had never experienced for even a week in his lifetime. While the ships were gone, the tourism business shifted from sea to land—and even now that cruise business is back to 85% capacity, land is still “doing really well.”

Hoping everyone’s land business is growing along with your cruise sales!

Cheryl’s 40-year career in journalism is bookended by roles in the travel industry, including Executive Editor of Business Travel News in the 1990s, and recently, Editor in Chief of Travel Market Report and admin of Cheryl Rosen’s Group for Travel Professionals, a news and support group on Facebook. As an independent contractor since retiring from the 9-to-5 to travel more, she has written regular articles about the life and business of travel agents for Luxury Travel Advisor, Travel Agent, and Insider Travel Report. She also writes and edits for professional publications in the financial services, business, and technology sectors.