Three years after the pandemic forced the cruise sector to drop anchor en masse, the buzz is back at Marella Cruises where managing director Chris Hackney’s grand vision for the Tui-owned line is once again taking shape.

Marella Voyager’s recent christening in Malaga set the tone, with pop star Becky Hill performing to more than 600 delighted agents onboard a shakedown cruise to Palma. Speaking to TTG onboard, Hackney reveals the Covid hiatus did result in some tangible benefits for Voyager and Marella’s approach.

“It gave us some time to dissect our customer insights and look at what they love about our ships and our product proposition,” he explains. “That allowed us to focus on the things we know are really well received and ensure we’re bringing an element of consistency across the whole fleet.”

The unplanned pause was also an opportunity to draw up fresh concepts to debut onboard Voyager, which most recently sailed as Mein Schiff Herz in the German market before an extensive refit. These new concepts include The Kitchens, a food hall with eight different eateries; experiential entertainment in The Exchange; and Marella’s first Mexican dining venue, Abuela’s.

Hackney tells TTG the ship reflects both wider UK consumer lifestyle trends and Marella’s desire not to make its now five-ship fleet, which comprises Explorer, Explorer 2, Discovery, Discovery 2 and Voyager, “cookie-cutters” of each other, seeking instead to evolve the line’s offering to match guests’ ever-changing tastes.

There have also been opportunities to implement new sustainability features, such as utilising more UV lighting and installing more water fountains, with Tui aiming to cut carbon emissions across its cruise business by 27.5% by 2030.

Tui and Marella’s focus on being on-trend extends to the line’s itineraries and ship placements. Later in 2023, Discovery 2 will become the line’s first vessel to homeport in Singapore and Hackney says the Asia-bound ship is Marella’s “best-sold for the winter at this stage”.

Specialising in fly-cruising, Marella utilises Tui’s air routes, with departures from more than 20 airports across the UK and Ireland. In fact, the cruise division often has first dibs on capacity, centring around where it wants to base ships. For instance, Marella will homeport in Turkey (Marmaris) next summer for the first time in nine years – with sales “off to a good start” according to Hackney.

“We’re not really in an ex-UK market, but we aim to really leverage the benefits of our flying,” he continues. “The good thing for British and Irish customers is that they don’t have to travel more than an hour-and-a-half to get to their local airport. We’ve got flexibility in terms of where we want to base our ships.”

New trade focus

Wherever Marella’s guests arrive from, one place Hackney will be hoping they visit before sailing is a travel agent. Indeed, Richard Sofer, Tui’s commercial and business development director confirms to TTG the travel giant is looking to rekindle its relationship with independents.

In the highly competitive cruise sector, however, it’s not all plain sailing; Hackney admits sales of Voyager were less than ideal last autumn. But some tactical Black Friday pricing gave the line a boost, helped by its all-inclusive proposition.

“Like the rest of the travel industry, we’re not really seeing the cost of living impact too much on sales,” says Hackney. “Our all-inclusive offering means we give value for money, and that has put us in a good position – we’ve seen a really strong start to 2023, back to 2019 levels.”

Hackney insists Marella’s renewed commitment to independent agents is genuine, pointing to the establishment last autumn of a new trade sales team. “I always see the value of getting agents onboard,” he says, revealing Marella hosted more agents onboard Voyager for its naming than on any previous ship.

“The new team has already paid dividends, and our share of third-party sales is growing – some agencies have increased their Marella business by more than 100% year-on-year,” Hackney adds, offering agents – some potentially still sceptical of Tui and Marella’s motives – some parting food for thought.