By Uche Usim
MICHAEL Bayley, President/CEO, Royal Caribbean International (RCI), is indeed a happy man. He has successfully deployed the world’s newest, biggest and most expensive cruise ship, Harmony of the Seas, into full service without any operational glitch.
Though there were teething problems with the ship’s pre-inaugural cruise out of Southampton in England as finishing touches were going on even as passengers were onboard, they were quickly sorted before the second pre-inaugural cruise in Barcelona, Spain.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Sun aboard the ship in Spain recently, Bayley, a seasoned travel and hospitality executive, disclosed plans to grow the African cruise market with Nigeria as the focal point as the country’s customer base is huge and growing.
He said the company will work with various cruise sales agents and other stakeholders to deepen sales in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. He describes Africa as a small market with growth potential to be as large as Asia or Europe.
Bayley’s career with the RCI’s parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL), spans 30 years. In his former role as President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises, Bayley delivered strong results while building the company’s modern luxury positioning, which resonated successfully with celebrities’ sophisticated customer base.
He began his career with the company in 1981, working in a variety of shipboard and shore side positions with increasing management responsibility, including that of Vice President of Total Guest Satisfaction and Fleet Operations. He also served as Vice President for Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino, one of the world’s largest premium gaming resorts, in Las Vegas.
Born in the United Kingdom, Bayley, graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of Bournemouth in England, and has attended management programmes at Harvard Business School and Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He is a member of the board of SteamShip Mutual in London, UK.
He has served as Senior Vice President, Hotel Operations for Royal Caribbean International, leading the worldwide hotel operations and onboard revenue of 21 cruise ships and 30,000 employees. Prior to that, he served as Chairman and Managing Director of Island Cruises Plc, a joint venture cruise line and tour operator begun in 2002 by RCCL and British tour operator, First Choice Holidays.
In this interview, he speaks more about the company and the new ship.
EXCERPTS:
My job
My job is to make sure our guests have a fantastic vacation with Royal Caribbean no matter which country they come from around the world. It includes making sure everybody has a fun-filled and fantastic time with their families and go home with wonderful memories. That’s my job.
Challenges
One of the challenges is to make sure things run well. Because of the size of our company and how many people are involved in our company and the guests we have, I’m awake all of the time to make sure everybody is happy.
How Harmony was conceived
The coming of Harmony of the Seas, I must say, is a huge team effort and it’s also through a process of evolution and revolution. We’ve been in the cruising business for 45 years. We’ve always been proud of our innovation. We’ve started thinking of our next generation of ships. We want to continually evolve our products and our brand and we want to bring in ideas to make it more exciting.
Growing the Africa cruise market
It’s a great thing that you’ve come to our ship and it’s wonderful because you’ve got time to see the ship. When you go home, you’re going to tell people about it; you’ll write about it. Really, the Nigerian market is small but it is growing. We’ve continued to see more and more bookings and guests from Africa and particularly in Nigeria. We’ve an office in Nigeria. Our intention, just as we do the world over, is to work with a variety of partners and General Sales Agents (GSA) and international representatives in different countries. We build the markets together and that’s what we’re doing in Nigeria.
Travel agencies are a major part of our operations and we’ll always work with them. 80- 90 per cent of our sales come through them. Travel partners explain the complexities of our operations. It’s something you need to let people know what you’re offering them. You need to understand their concerns and yearnings and work towards meeting these yearnings. That’s the backbone of our existence. We’re always trying to meet customers’ needs. For Harmony of the Seas, for instance, it’s a perfect vacation choice for families and this summer, guests will enjoy a bold and unexpected line up of thrilling features as they sail to the most popular Mediterranean destinations. The ship combines the distinct seven-neighbourhood concept that Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class of ships are known for with some of the most modern and groundbreaking vacation amenities, including the Ultimate Abyss, the tallest slide at sea with a 10-storey plunge; robot bartenders at The Bionic Bar, powered by Makr Shakr; interior staterooms with virtual balconies that provide real-time views of the destinations, and VOOM – the fastest internet at sea – so that guests can stay connected, stream their favourite entertainment and share their adventures with family and friends back at home.
Cost and safety
The ship costs about $1.5 billion and took about three years to build. It was built by STX France at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France, for Royal Caribbean International. It has a gross tonnage of 227,700 GT and comes in a 16-deck ship configuration. It took 2,500 workers at STX France around 10 million work-hours to complete the enormous vessel. It’s highly environmentally friendly. Harmony of the Seas produces 20 per cent less CO2 emissions than the two largest ships in its class, partly thanks to air pumped into the hull to lighten its load. However, before we built it, we went through a long design process, which took about a year and half to two years. From start to finish, the ship of this size and quality is about a five-year project. The ship meets all international regulatory approvals on safety, performance and all that.
We’ve got remarkable safety in our DNA. Like I said, the ship meets all international safety parameters and got all needed regulatory approvals.
Initial hiccups
Yeah! On the hiccups experienced during the pre-inaugural out of Southampton, the issues raised by customers were not out of place as there is always a need for finishing touches whenever a ship with such complexities is launched. After we took delivery of the ship, we had two short cruises, a four-day and a three-day when the Harmony of the Seas was launched and we had the finishing touches to put in place. We had some workers onboard to finish up the jobs. The perception we had from some of our guests was that there was too much work going on. Obviously, that wasn’t what we intended to do and we wrote to those guests individually and we gave them 50 per cent discount on future cruises alongside my apology as things were not as perfect as we would have wanted them to be. We just finished the first cruise to Barcelona and guest satisfaction for Harmony of the Seas shattered our records. It was absolutely phenomenal.
Itinerary
Coming off of receiving stellar guest satisfaction scores and feedback on its first repositioning cruise, from Southampton, UK to Barcelona, Harmony of the Seas will be sailing an exclusive five-night Western Mediterranean itinerary with visits to Rome (Civitavecchia) and Naples, Italy, at full capacity, with guests representing more than 34 countries.
It will also offer a seven-night Western Mediterranean itineraries, showcasing Europe’s most popular destinations – Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Provence (Marseilles), France; Florence/Pisa, Rome and Naples, Italy. The ship will reposition to the US in November where she will make Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, FL her permanent homeport.
Fleet
In the Oasis Class ships, we have Harmony of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. In the Freedom Class, we have Freedom of the Seas, Independence of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. In the Voyager Class, we have Voyager of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas. In the Radiance Class, we have Jewel of the Seas, Brilliance of the Seas, Serenade of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas. In the Vision Class, we have Enchantment of the Seas, Grandeur of the Seas, Vision of the Seas, Rhapsody of the Seas and Legend of the Seas. We also have Majesty of the Seas and Empress of the Seas, which represent our Sovereign and Empress Class.
Future
We have more ships coming. We will continually research to find out what we can add to make our customers happy. We are big on customer satisfaction.