Britannia Rules – an Australian success story from the ‘other P&O’
P&O Cruises UK reports ever increasing support for its World Voyages from the Australian market.
Speaking in Sydney, Carol Marlow P&O UK’s Managing Director reported that, typically, 10% of passengers are now Australian.
However, on the Oriana’s sailing from Sydney on November 4, this figure leapt to 30%.
“Our decision to schedule this early World voyage created an opportunity for passengers to ‘boomerang’; arriving Southampton on December 17, spending Christmas and New Year in UK and then returning on Arcadia’s January 5, 2011 sailing.”
Marlow said she expects that, in 2012, Australian passengers will account for 15% of total World Voyage sales and that forward sales from Australia were tracking around “one-third up†on this time last year.
P&O has a repeat rate of 59%, which Marlow believes is one of the best in the industry.
In 2009, just 25% of Australian passengers were repeat cruisers. “We’ve now got 33% to 34% of repeaters so it’s moving up,†she said.
Three ships – Arcadia, Oriana and Aurora will again operate World Voyages, visiting Australia in February/March 2012.
In what’s described as a response to feedback from Australian passengers, the January 4- April 2, 2012 Aurora voyage will feature more Mediterranean region ports.
On her northbound leg she’ll call at two Egyptian ports then Limassol, Haifa, Izmir, Istanbul, Piraeus and Lisbon.
by Philip Thorniley
Ian Jarrett
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