Azamara Cruises’ new CEO Dondra Ritzenthaler feels “blessed, honoured and humble” as she reflects on her first four months within the company and highlights the brand’s “sweet spot” that makes cruisers keep coming back for more
After a busy few months with the launch of the 2026 summer programme, the reinstated Alaska sailings and the return of the World Academy training programme, Dondra has settled in well to her role of CEO, and sat down with Travel Bulletin to discuss the importance of moving forward with a ‘lion’s mentality’ – the mindset at the heart of Azamara’s strategy.
“What does it mean to have a lion’s mentality? The lion is not the fastest, the strongest nor the largest, but he is the king of the jungle. Why is that? It is because of his mentality which is ‘I am king of the jungle’, and as a result, he has made all the other animals believe that.
“Coming into Azamara with these four little beautiful ships, and not being one of the ‘big brands’, I wanted to make sure that the team has a mentality that says ‘I don’t care if we’re the small brand, I don’t care that we’re not part of a big corporation, we’re going to have a lion’s mentality and we’re not going to be overlooked […] with that mind-set, you can do all those things because nobody can convince you otherwise.”
Cruising to the top
As the cruising industry continues to gain momentum and top the trends which will shape the tourism sector into the future, Dondra shared her thoughts on the factors that propel the growth of the industry and where Azamara fits into the bigger picture.
“I believe there is still a little bit of revenge travel out there […] for a couple of years’ people couldn’t cruise. Our human nature is, if you want to do something and you can’t, you want to do it so much more. We’re all building these beautiful new ships, and we’re growing the marketing budget […] word of mouth is crazy, and repeat ratios are off the charts because people love the experience, and that to me is the magic of why we just keep growing as an industry.
“I think [Azamara’s] spot in the space is so beautiful […] what we do is we don’t have as many first-to-cruise because we leave that to the bigger brands out there with household names. Where Azamara comes in is now you’ve decided you like cruising, but want to really get much more immersed, you want a more authentic experience and you want to go to some of the places the larger ships are too big to get to. That is our part. We take our guests on these beautiful small ships to places the large ones can’t reach, and then we stay.”
Authentic at heart
Authentic travel experiences remain a top trend for travellers looking to seek something different on their holidays, and a trend that Azamara has rooted into the heart of its operations.
“People are craving authenticity, and that’s our sweet spot. We’re going to continue down the path of destination immersion cruising [in the short term], doubling down and going to even more places, staying later and curating a very authentic cultural experience in one of the cities visited that can’t be accessed unless you do it with us. It takes that authenticity up a notch.
“Longer term, I would like to see us grow our fleet, I would love a couple more ships so that we can take our guests to places today we simply can’t because we don’t have the capacity. We’re also going to look into different itineraries, we’re going to keep those beautiful ships and then we’re going to strategise on how we can continue to grow the brand.”
Aza-mazing agents
A lot of Azamara’s continued success can be attributed to its agent partners and the hard work they put into selling the product. Dondra hailed praise onto the trade, stating they have her “respect, admiration and loyalty” as “without travel advisors, we wouldn’t be successful.” 
“We’re 86% sold by travel advisors, that is a massively large number, so without them, we wouldn’t be successful. We are very trade-dependent, very trade reliant, and very trade loyal. They are the value interpreters, and they do an amazing job getting customers to understand ‘if you like this, you’ll love that’ and we need that, because I can’t reach all those customers […] they are very, very much an extension of us, and I could not do it without them.”
Dondra Ritzenthaler is the CEO of Azamara Cruises.
