News

Silversea Cruises announces global commercial reorganisation

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 28 June 2011 28 June 2011

Silversea Cruises today announced changes to its global management structure to better respond to market requirements and facilitate its desired international growth.

The changes include two key executive appointments: Steve Odell, as senior vice president of sales and marketing for the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific, and Karen Christensen, as director of sales and marketing and general manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Manfredi Lefebvre, Silversea's chairman and chairman of the European Cruise Council, said: "Today we are seeing new geographic regions and countries that are disproportionately contributing to the cruise industry's development, particularly in Europe. This evolution poses challenges for commercial organisations that wish to benefit from this growth. Adapting the teams to accept the challenge is of fundamental importance and this is why Silversea is now announcing changes to its organisation which will better respond to market requirements."

Steve Odell has been responsible for Silversea's Asia Pacific region since 2001 and opened the office in Sydney in 2008. He has had tremendous success at developing business in the region. Odell will relocate to the company's London office at the beginning of July, where he will take on his new responsibilities for the extended geographical region. He will continue to report to Kenneth Watson, the company's chief operating officer.

Karen Christensen, who has been successful in her role as regional sales director for Australia and New Zealand within the Sydney office in recent years, will continue to report to Odell as she takes on her new responsibilities for the region.

There will be no changes in Silversea's Singapore office, which will continue to report to Odell in London.

The sales and marketing staff responsible for the European market, based in Monaco, will now report to Odell. The company also announced plans to open a new office in Frankfurt, which will be operational in the second half of this year, underscoring the importance of the German market. This new office will also have the responsibility for managing Austria and Switzerland.

Trudy Redfern, senior vice president for UK, Ireland and Middle East markets, has decided to leave Silversea as of 30 June, after more than seven years with the company. Redfern was instrumental in developing business in the UK, which is the company's second largest market.

At the company's office in Fort Lauderdale, Kenneth Watson will maintain global marketing and sales responsibility while heading up sales for the Americas.

Steve Tucker will continue in his role as vice president of field sales for North America and Melissa Araya will continue in her role as director of sales for Central and South America, and both will report directly to Kenneth Watson.

STX France cancels the newbuilding contract with Libya's GNTMC

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 22 June 2011 22 June 2011

STX France SA, a 66.66% owned subsidiary of STX Europe AS, has rescinded the contract with GNMTC (General National Maritime Transport Company) - the state owned Libyan shipping company - for the construction of a 140,000 GT cruise vessel for delivery end-2012. The reason for the rescission is the default of payment from GNMTC.

STX France is confident to be able to find a new buyer for the vessel. Due to insurance cover for such an incident, the rescission is expected to have limited impact on the financial results of STX France.

Broad based demand feeds world cruise market growth

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 22 June 2011 22 June 2011

A broad based demand is feeding the growth of world cruise market, said managing directors of Cunard Line and P&O Cruises in London yesterday. Both companies are adding one ship to their 2013 world cruise programmes, so that P&O Cruises will have four and Cunard Line three ships on these long haul voyages that take between 85 and 110 nights.

“Some people save up for 30 years to make a world cruise and to them it is a once in a lifetime experience. Some others come back year after year,” said Carol Marlow, Managing Director of P&OCruises. “Adult Gap Year,” whereby a person e.g. in his or her fifties decides to have time off in an otherwise busy career is also contributing towards growing demand of these long haul cruises, while some people that have been made redundant decide to use part of their redundancy package to book a world cruise, she said. Contrary to what might seem likely, Marlow pointed out that some of the passengers on world cruises have never been onboard a ship before, a fact that again adds to the diversity of the people that book these voyages.

The 2013 world cruise programme of Cunard Line, which is sending all three ships in its fleet on these long cruises forthe first time then, includes several overnight stays, which means that passengers have two full days and a night to explore the port in question. Peter Shanks, President and Managing Director of the company said that it is just the fact that people will have more time to explore the sights and places of interest in these ports that makes overnight stays popular, not so much thepossibility to explore local nightlife.

Both companies sell also segments of these cruises and in case of Cunard, lots of bookings will come from continental Europe, North America and Australia in addition to the UK. To ensure that potential passengers from all these parts of the world will have an equal opportunity to book, the company will start taking bookings in the afternoon UKtime on 14 July, when the programme goes on sale, Shanks said.

P&O Cruises mainly sources its passengers from the British market, but like those of Cunard, segments of its programme can be bought e.g. as liner voyages and the company expects to sell quite a lot of these on the Australian market. Marlow pointed out that although bookings will open for the programme on 14 July, those for segments will start on the following day. This is to make sure that passengers that want to book the whole voyage can do so and that the company’s reservation department has enough staff at hand to handle the expected surge in activity once the programme goes onsale.