Multi-year agreements with Qatar and Abu Dhabi DCT, the latter confirmed at Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this week, will see Celestyal homeport both of its ships in the Arabian Gulf in 2025/26, after last year's inaugural one-ship season exceeded occupancy targets
If the extension of Celestyal Journey's Gulf season earlier this year was not testament enough to the cruise line's confidence in the region, the 30% capacity boost in the form of Celestyal Discovery joining its sister ship in the Gulf later this year certainly is.
Lee Haslett, Celestyal's global chief commercial officer, was quick to attest to the success of the inaugural season. "The season was essentially mission complete... we over-delivered on our passenger number targets by nearly 34% from an occupancy perspective."
While Lee did admit that the targets for the first season were "a little conservative... against the backdrop of a new market, new deployment, and the geopolitical challenges in and around the region," the over-performance meant the season overall operated at around 84% occupancy.
"The season was really well-supported by our global travel agent partners, but support was especially strong from the UK trade... it was an incredibly successful first season."
That support was rewarded with an F1 fam, where 32 agents joined Celestyal on board for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and renewed focus on the cruise line's trade resources with the revamp of Celestyal Compass, its online training and sales platform.
The feedback from those initiatives has been "really, really strong," with Lee revealing that agents are already delivering even better performance on Middle Eastern sales on the back of the Abu Dhabi fam.
As for Compass, almost half (44%) of downloads from the portal are for marketing assets, which Lee belives demonstrates "that agents want to find out more about, and promote, our business. The number one thing that has been downloaded is information on our suites and cabins, which shows agents are really interested in the investment we're making into our fleet."
Celestyal Discovery's delivery of 30% extra capacity when it sails in the Gulf later this year may not be the cruise line's final call in terms of growing capacity. While details are just as scarce as they were when Lee hinted towards future fleet plans at World Travel Market in November last year, he reiterated that "[Celestyal is] not standing still. With two vessels and the growth projection at the moment, we expect to grow further."
