Expedition cruising is set to explode on the cruising scene, fuelled by growing consumer interest in transformational and experiential vacations offered in far-flung regions around the world, it has emerged at the recently concluded Seatrade Cruise Global forum concluded in Miami.

Closer home in Dubai, TTN's Rashi Sen spoke to Nick Wilkinson, vice-president and managing director for UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa, Norwegian Cruise Line, for more regional insight.

He was visiting the emirate as part of an annual roadshow that tours key cities in the Middle East meeting travel agents and consumers, sharing updates about Norwegian Bliss, which sets on its maiden voyage from Bremerhaven in Germany on April 19 this year.

This year, he and his team visited key locations of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kuwait and Bahrain in the second week of March.

After experiencing 38 quarters of continuous growth and with 15 ‘floating resorts’ in its current portfolio, Norwegian Cruise Line is offering several promotions to increase its market share the region. There’s the interesting buy one get one half price promotion, where you pay for one guest and the travel partner receives a 50 per cent discount.

“We consider land-based resorts to be our competition, we do not look to other cruise liners,” explains Wilkinson. As part of the roadshow, and for a limited time only (March 25), there will be an additional bonus commission of 4 per cent provided per booking.

Wilkinson explained that a major challenge in promoting cruises in the Middle East region was the last-minute nature of the bookings. While the world books holidays six to eight months in advance, the Middle East books holidays much later, due to various reasons. The low lead time can be a major challenge as the demand for cruise is skyrocketing and seats are filling up quite fast.

According to a change made late last year, Norwegian Cruise Line requires full payment for the trip to be made 120 days ahead of sailing instead of 90 days. To book a place on a cruise usually requires a deposit of $250 per person, so if you are a family of four, you end up paying $1,000 for a cruise holiday next summer or winter.

For the period of March 15 to March 19, Norwegian Cruise Line offers agents in this part of the world, a booking deposit of only $1 per person. - TradeArabia News Service