Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), one of the world’s largest cruise line operators, is planning to invest in the Indian market in a big way towards promotion and brand-building to expand its market share, according to a senior official.
“We are going to invest more money in India in 2021 than we did ever before, considering the environment that we are facing in 2021,” said Ben Angell, Vice-President & Managing Director of the Asia Pacific region, Norwegian Cruise Line.
He was addressing a virtual press conference to share the cruise company’s plan for India and Asian markets.
“We are currently investing more across the Asia Pacific region. We got a wonderful team, great product and we just need to spend more money to educate our future guests on the quality of the product that we offer and that will be a big part of our approach for 2021,” he added.
India is currently the number two market for NCL in Asia and number three in Asia Pacific region.
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“There have been times when India is the largest revenue contributing market in Asia, but due to a number of factors outside our control that actually pushed Japan ahead of India. But still, it (India) is a fantastic market for us,” he added.
“Our current cruise passengers from the Indian market want to cruise with us again in the post-pandemic world,” Angell said, adding, “So, the challenge for us in India is really about how we increase our market share further.”
He further said that ‘green shoots’ of growth is already visible from the weekly booking data from India despite the current challenging environment.
“We just launched our Northern Hemisphere Summer 2023 itineraries which gives our guests more choices in this uncertain world,” Angell said, adding: “From Caribbean-island hopping to Alaskan-glacier viewing, or even European explorations — a favourite among Indian guests — we offer wide variety of experiences all the way out to Summer 2023.”