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US Editor of Seatrade Cruise news interview the President of Regent


WesW
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Nice Seatrade Insider article on the Spike on Luxury cruise spending. President of Regent, Jason Montague interviewed, among his quotes:

"It's a great time to be the [luxury cruise] space, Montague told the audience, which includes some of the top retailers in cruising, gathered this week at the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island.

 

Regent will grow its capacity 28% with the addition ofSeven Seas Splendorin 2020.

 

 

http://www.seatrade-cruise.com/

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My favourite quote

 

Moreover, there's a societal shift from desiring possessions to placing a higher value on experiences. 'We benefit from this secular shift,' the Regent chief added.

 

This is spot on for me

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Amen to that! I’ve been saying that for year!

 

Not true anymore, many are earning six to seven figure salaries these days or living off trust funds. Our niece is working in high end real estate mostly commercial and only 27 and pulling those high numbers and so proud of her.

 

Yes, she can well afford to fly first class and cruise on a luxury line. At 27 I could only dream about it.

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Seems like some do not believe the President of Regent nor the rest of the Baby Boomers. I will repeat this once and will let it go. While some young people can afford luxury cruise lines and may even have enough vacation time, they have little to no interest in sedate, laid back, quiet, luxury cruise lines (and I do not blame them). Facts are facts and the fact is that Baby Boomers are the highest percentage of luxury cruisers and this could continue for the next 20 years so it is a good idea to just accept it. In the meantime, new ships - new concepts, etc. will be launched to meet the desires of the next generation of cruisers.

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Thanks for flagging the article, Wes; very interesting.

 

One other fascinating statistic was “..... the total spending for luxury cruises is just a 1% sliver of the luxury hospitality industry”,

If the luxury cruise lines develop the right product and tailor their marketing then there appears to be plenty of potential for expansion of luxury cruises to suit all demographics.

Edited by flossie009
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Some of our children, in their 50’s, still working, can well afford luxury cruises. However, it’s not their thing at this time. They prefer high end luxury tours, like safaris and small travel groups to exotic places.

Some of our grandchildren are millennials, who can afford luxury vacations. They are limited in time and are not interested in cruising. Their idea of an exciting trip is to visit interesting countries, that can be done in less than two weeks.

They have all become successes in their fields of endeavor. No trusts etc..

I am sure that some day, they will take a luxury cruise, but none of them would do it now.

I am sure this is not the case for some others. But, for our family, it’s up to us to keep sailing on Regent.

Sheila

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Sheila that is true for us as well we are late 50’s and early sixties and enjoy both land and sea trips on the higher scale and believe in doing it while you can. Yes, Safaris are great for all ages beit Africa or India. We have been cruising since our late 20’s and we started with Carnival and graduated to premium and then the luxury lines and Crystal was our first thirty years ago and were spoiled on the Harmony and we never looked back. At that time we could never be gone more than two or three weeks as we both worked and had a business to run.

 

What we are seeing indeed is a younger and by that I mean thirty something and forty something cruising luxury lines which really brings a great and different vibe on these lines and it’s nice to be able to keep up with them while our health is excellent and in good shape.

 

It’s also great that people in their very senior years and I mean senior are able to still travel and some of them are all in better shape than the forty somethings.

 

The reality is, us baby boomer will not be around forever and the cruise lines are marketing to a bit younger group who can afford luxury cruising. Many are interested in the yachts and luxury expedition trips which costs far much more money. The wealthy young vacationers are certainly out there and Regent, Seabourn, SS, Crystal are getting their business which is a good thing. Frankly, we are not interested in a floating nursing home and enjoy the company of all ages who have the same energy that we do and we have seen 90 year olds kicking it up on the dance floor and dancing the night away and God Bless them. We hope to be doing that as well.

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Some of our children, in their 50’s, still working, can well afford luxury cruises. However, it’s not their thing at this time. They prefer high end luxury tours, like safaris and small travel groups to exotic places.

Some of our grandchildren are millennials, who can afford luxury vacations. They are limited in time and are not interested in cruising. Their idea of an exciting trip is to visit interesting countries, that can be done in less than two weeks.

They have all become successes in their fields of endeavor. No trusts etc..

I am sure that some day, they will take a luxury cruise, but none of them would do it now.

I am sure this is not the case for some others. But, for our family, it’s up to us to keep sailing on Regent.

Sheila

 

Could not agree with you more. We have friends (older and younger) that have no interest in cruising on any type of ship and it is understandable. Young people that are fit and healthy can generally have a better time on land vacations (at least we did during our 20 years of international land travel before we began cruising).

 

What there may be a market for is luxury cruises where the ship stays in port for more days. While we would not be interested in that since we have been to most ports multiple times, some passengers have not had the amount of land travel and many ports are new to them.

 

Looking back to when we started cruising (14 years ago), we would not have been ready for luxury cruising and likely would have found it a bit boring. Now we are having a reverse effect. We find land trip fairly boring as we love being in new ports/cities/countries every day.

 

There is no right or wrong answer here. Regent knows what it is doing and it is nice to see their appreciation of their long standing past cruisers.

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Maybe it is me but I really don't follow the back and forth on this.

 

 

My sense is that Regent or for that matter each line has a good understanding of its current demographics along with the type of demographics that it targets.

 

 

I believe it is fair to say that the vast majority of the passengers of luxury lines (majority not all) are part of the baby boom generation and that in general the millennium generation is not there yet. That doesn't mean that millenium's do not or cannot afford luxury it just means that the "bread and butter" is still baby boomers. On its surface that makes a lot of sense and I suspect is pretty consistent to what you see first hand when you cruise. Yes, in summer you see more millenniums than in winter.

 

 

 

In time this will evolve as baby boomers get older as our own parents did and the millenniums do as well.

 

 

In time the luxury lines like all cruise lines will continue to evolve their products based on changing times and the demographics that they serve.

 

 

No different than TV which by and large focuses on millenniums rather than baby boomers for much of its programming and advertising even though baby boomers do watch TV.

 

 

Good article.

 

 

Keith

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Sheila that is true for us as well we are late 50’s and early sixties and enjoy both land and sea trips on the higher scale and believe in doing it while you can. Yes, Safaris are great for all ages beit Africa or India. We have been cruising since our late 20’s and we started with Carnival and graduated to premium and then the luxury lines and Crystal was our first thirty years ago and were spoiled on the Harmony and we never looked back. At that time we could never be gone more than two or three weeks as we both worked and had a business to run.

 

What we are seeing indeed is a younger and by that I mean thirty something and forty something cruising luxury lines which really brings a great and different vibe on these lines and it’s nice to be able to keep up with them while our health is excellent and in good shape.

 

It’s also great that people in their very senior years and I mean senior are able to still travel and some of them are all in better shape than the forty somethings.

 

The reality is, us baby boomer will not be around forever and the cruise lines are marketing to a bit younger group who can afford luxury cruising. Many are interested in the yachts and luxury expedition trips which costs far much more money. The wealthy young vacationers are certainly out there and Regent, Seabourn, SS, Crystal are getting their business which is a good thing. Frankly, we are not interested in a floating nursing home and enjoy the company of all ages who have the same energy that we do and we have seen 90 year olds kicking it up on the dance floor and dancing the night away and God Bless them. We hope to be doing that as well.

 

 

Well said MalbecWine!

 

 

Hey [emoji112] don’t forget about us GenXers!

Honestly, my friends all like to just relax and go to the beach for their vacations (Mexico, Hawaii, Caribbean, Eastern Seaboard, etc). Having a 21 year old at home still 🤦🏻*♀️, and two others who are young, we’ll be rearing children for 36 years! So we’re tired. Vacation can only be a week or two long. So no safaris or exotic land vacations. We take the kids to the beach and pool in Hawaii annually, and we’re trying out this next year a new addition - couple’s vacation on the Voyager so that we can see Europe. So I think if they try to target GenXers with the Baby Boomers with the promise of relaxation and maybe add a few more itineraries that are 7 days, they can start folding in the next set of pax.

 

BTW: I know I’m not going to any power point lectures. I’d be interested in relaxing crafts, food, wine, microbrewery tasting, etc. So in terms of ship’s activities, I think there’s room for improvement.

 

Also, I’m wondering, now that I think about it, if the CEO is saying that Regent will always cater to people who are 60-90 years old, IOW retirees, and are not interested in bringing in below that age group (sort of specializing in the later age demographic, like Holland America)?

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Hey [emoji112] don’t forget about us GenXers!

Honestly, my friends all like to just relax and go to the beach for their vacations (Mexico, Hawaii, Caribbean, Eastern Seaboard, etc). Having a 21 year old at home still 🤦🏻*♀️, and two others who are young, we’ll be rearing children for 36 years! So we’re tired. Vacation can only be a week or two long. So no safaris or exotic land vacations. We take the kids to the beach and pool in Hawaii annually, and we’re trying out this next year a new addition - couple’s vacation on the Voyager so that we can see Europe. So I think if they try to target GenXers with the Baby Boomers with the promise of relaxation and maybe add a few more itineraries that are 7 days, they can start folding in the next set of pax.

 

Also, I’m wondering, now that I think about it, if the CEO is saying that Regent will always cater to people who are 60-90 years old, IOW retirees, and are not interested in bringing in below that age group (sort of specializing in the later age demographic, like Holland America)?

 

I think that you made one of my points in terms of GenXers not being able to sail on longer itineraries (which are likely quite lucrative for Regent).

 

In terms of the comments made by Frank Del Rio, it is not that Regent will cater to people who are 60-90 years of age forever ....... they will target whatever will bring them their "bread and butter". If people begin retiring earlier or somehow have more vacation time are can be away from their children longer, it could change.

 

Sometimes I wonder if luxury lines will be coming out with new and different ships that could cater to more age groups. These small ships (under 1,000 passengers) would have a challenge catering to those of us (at any age) that want a peaceful, relaxed environment and mix that with things that most GenXers would like to have on a ship.

 

One thing that may work for people that want newer (and louder) music is the "silent disco" that some non-luxury cruise lines have. People of many age groups love it - it's quiet and fun. This could work on Regent for those that like to party after 11:00 p.m.

 

I do find it interesting that some newer cruise lines are targeting adults with no children (Virgin Voyages for instance).

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