On this week’s episode of Karryon’s luxury podcast, Luxury Unpacked, host Fiona Dalton chats to The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s Seb Seward about the importance of the Australian market, how it’s bringing a new audience to cruise and eyeing up Australian waters.
There’s no clearer commitment to a market than opening an office there, and that’s exactly what The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection has done.
“Australia is a huge, mature luxury cruise market, and that’s the reason I’m based here, and we are setting up our regional headquarters in Sydney,” says The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection’s Asia Pacific Vice President and General Manager Seb Seward.
“We feel initial booking patterns from Australia are encouraging, and we’ve just signed a five-year lease here, and hired a reservations team in Sydney and implemented Australian dollar prices too, so we are very serious about this market.”
He says it’s also “actively looking at when we can bring one of our yachts down here”.
Competitive advantage
The Ritz-Carlton has hit the “sweet spot”, says Seward, having a product that appeals to an audience who has never cruised before.
“Our product appeals to a new customer. Of the global customer, 50 per cent of our guests have never cruised before, and sometimes that’s a younger demographic, and we have the product to hit that sweet spot.”
Seward says that’s because it has such a strong emphasis on service, with small numbers (the largest ships take 450 people), multiple restaurants and a superyacht-designed marina platform.
“We can open that up and you can swim straight off the back of the yacht, so it’s like being on your own private superyacht.”
He says it also helps that The Ritz-Carlton has a “shop window” in its hotels.
“Those who have stayed at The Ritz-Carlton properties are aware of the service value, and there’s a trust in the product.
“For those who haven’t cruised, there’s a trust from the outset, and you might not need to explain the product as much as others who don’t have that brand recognition.
“Luxury travel advisors are also essential to our strategy here, and we’ve been encouraging and enabling many to experience it and understand the difference between luxury cruising and yachting. We’ve found that it is a powerful way to enable them to understand the product fully.”
New itineraries
Asia, the South Pacific, Northern Europe and Alaska are all destinations the superyachts will visit over the next 24 months.
“We’ve just launched our first season in Northern Europe on board Ilma, and Luminara will travel to Asia later this year, so just before Christmas, we’ll have the inaugural voyage from Singapore.
“And the voyages have a beautiful range of destinations… and we’re trying to do different things. An example is in Bangkok the port is quite a long way from the city, so instead of asking guests to travel there and back to port in a day, we’re incorporating an overnight at the new The Ritz-Carlton Bangkok as part of the itinerary, so they can relax and enjoy Bangkok.”
He says “being part of this really large family allows us to do things like that”.
Seward says it’ll also sail to Alaska for the first time next year, and have itineraries in French Polynesia in early 2027, a new voyage season for The Ritz-Carlton.
Click below to listen to the full interview.
For more information, partnership opportunities, or to be a guest on the show, contact Karryon’s Partnership Manager Carolyn Nightingale at carolyn@karryon.com.au.
