Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings plans to keep a modest presence in China, despite great expectations for the cruise industry within the nation's emerging economy.
The Miami-based cruise major is pulling its 3,883-berth Norwegian Joy (built 2017) out of the promising market this month after announcing in July that the built-for-China ship would redeploy to Alaska.
"We tried China, we were there for 19 months," chief executive Frank del Rio said. "We think it’s got a lot of potential but given the size of the fleet that we have in today’s environment, so strong in the western worlds, in North America, we simply can make a lot more money with that same vessel out of China than in China."
The company plans to spend $50m to redesign the Norwegian Joy for the North American and Western markets before repositioning it to Alaska in May.
Norwegian will reenter the Chinese market in the summer of 2020 with the much smaller, refurbished 1,996-berth Norwegian Spirit (built 1998) for seasonal sailings only.
'Lots of virgin territory' in US
Del Rio said his company would rather chase underserved — or completely unserved — markets in the US around the cities of Baltimore, New Orleans or Los Angeles.
Norwegian in 2014 doubled its fleet to 26 ships, spending $3bn on Prestige Cruises International's Oceania and Regent Seven Seas brands. It has 11 more vessels on order through 2027.
He said Norwegian would like to put vessels in Cape Canaveral and Tampa, Florida, as well as Houston.
"I don’t have a ship at all in the second largest port, the Everglades, and I only have five vessels in Alaska, whereas some of my competitors have over 20," he said.
"Lots of virgin territory so to speak and add more ships and bring the Norwegian brand, the Oceania brand, the Regent brand to those markets."
Norwegian plans to do that through old-fashioned marketing and travel agents in an effort to entice vacationers to fly to where their ships push off for cruises, he said.
"Clearly there is a potential to serve those markets better and we hope to as we take delivery of additional vessels," he said.
