“It’s been a busy few weeks,” he smiles, speaking onboard Celebrity Beyond hours after receiving the keys to Celebrity Cruises’ third Edge-class ship. It’s something of an understatement.
Beyond’s delivery at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire last week (7 April) capped a flurry of recent milestones for Royal Caribbean Group - and a rather packed fortnight of engagements for Liberty himself.
Earlier in the week, he was in Finland for the keel-laying of Royal Caribbean International’s first Icon-class ship, Icon of the Seas, before heading to Saint-Nazaire for the steel-cutting of Utopia of the Seas, the line’s sixth Oasis-class vessel. And just a few days earlier, Liberty was onboard Silversea’s Silver Dawn for the ship’s christening in Lisbon.
This wave of celebrations is indicative of the confidence building in the cruise sector, and Liberty’s mood is equally buoyant as we speak over Zoom.
“We saw a couple months ago that we’ve turned the corner, whether it’s looking at consumer demand, whether it’s operation - we’re certainly getting there,” he tells TTG. “That’s not to say the road ahead isn’t a little wobbly but we’re now moving downhill with gravity.”
With the company building back after two years of Covid, shaken by an uncertain start to 2022 due to the Omicron variant, Liberty took the reins in January in challenging circumstances – not to mention the understandably daunting task of succeeding outgoing chief Richard Fain after his 33 years at the helm.
But with 17 years in the company, most recently as the group’s chief financial officer and helped by some “very thoughtful” succession planning by the Royal board, Liberty was well placed to hit the ground running. “Although I’ve been a bit behind the scenes, I’ve been responsible for a very large portion of our company for a long time, so the transition has been as good as it possibly can be,” he says.
He praises the close relationship he shares with Michael Bayley, president and chief executive of Royal Caribbean International; Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises; and Roberto Martinoli, president and chief executive of Silversea. “We’ve worked together so closely for so long, so family is still very much together,” he says.
The raft of positive news for the company and the wider cruise industry has continued in recent weeks, with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lifting its cruise travel warning for the first time since March 2020.
“The data has supported it for a very long time – you’re safer on a cruise than you are anywhere in society,” says Liberty. “The protocols we’ve put in place and how we’ve executed on that has built more and more confidence in different authorities’ support of cruising.”
Around 85% of Royal Caribbean Group’s fleet is currently sailing, and Liberty believes a full return to service will come by June. Business for the second half of the year is also returning to more recognisable levels.
“For the most part, our business for the back half of 2022 is going to look very similar to pre-Covid,” he explains. “We’re feeling very good about that. Certainly, I’d say in the western world – Europe, US, Canada, Australia – all of those markets are moving back on to normal booking and travel patterns.”
Despite the war in Ukraine, demand for Europe from US travellers is holding firm, Liberty stresses. “It’s a horrific situation and unimaginable that something like that could be happening in our time,” he says. “Americans are still very open to going to the Baltics and so, mainly, is everybody else. They’re happy to go to the western Baltics and the Mediterranean, so there’s no deterring the customer, although I know everyone is focused on the social and emotional impact of the situation.”
Closer to home, Liberty reiterates the importance of the UK - Royal Caribbean Group’s second-largest market – and the group’s pledge to continue to showcase its “best ships” on British shores. He also voices his “very strong appreciation” for the trade and the hard work of agents during his time at the company – especially over the past two years.
“Although not everybody knows it, several of the brands reported into me, so I have a real appreciation for the trade and relationships they have with us,” he says. “The last thing agents have to worry about is the head of this group not feeling that they’re exceptional – because they absolutely are.”
Another important focus for Liberty as he begins his time in charge at Royal Caribbean Group is sustainability, underscored by his decision to change the company’s mission statement to reflect its significance. “It was the first thing I did when I came into the role,” he recalls. “We were always focused on delivering the best vacations in the world, but I added ‘...and doing so in a responsible way’.
“Whether you’re buying a new pen for your desk, or investing in a new ship, we should be pushing ourselves to the edge of what we can do to decarbonise our business and we’re setting up our fleet to take on new technologies as soon as possible.”
Under Royal’s Destination Net Zero initiative, announced in October, the company is striving to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and plans to operate a net-zero ship by 2035. Key to this endeavour, says Liberty, is its work on Silversea’s Nova-class series of ships. Launching in 2023, Silver Nova still lays claim to being the first luxury hybrid vessel free of local emissions while in port, utilising fuel cells, batteries and liquefied natural gas (LNG) as its main fuel.
“Silversea is a laboratory for us, and that focus on how we accelerate our path,” explains Liberty. “Silver Nova is going to have fuel cells and other technology that takes about 40% of the carbon out of the ship’s footprint.
“If we can get 40% there, then on the next ship we deliver maybe we can get that on a 2,000-passenger ship and then on a 4,000-passenger ship. That’s how you begin to move towards net-zero, as well as using carbon capture technologies and other things to be able to do that.”
Shore power is another key focus for the group, with Liberty revealing Royal has outfitted “almost all” its ships with shore power capability. “We spend 35-40% of our time in port, and if we can get a clean grid and we’re able to plug in, then that’s going to make a dramatic change to our footprint.”
The onus, though, is not just on cruise companies; it will require governments, the wider maritime industry and the private sector to come together to achieve the world’s climate goals, says Liberty.
“We need broader investment, nobody is going to develop technology just for cruise ships,” he warns. “If we invest in sustainability the way we, as a society, have invested in other technologies, and put those efforts into decarbonising the world, we can make a big dent. We need our society and our governments to make the right bets and help us get to where we want to go.”
It seems Liberty’s focus on improving the group’s sustainability credentials mirrors his outlook for the wider company strategy. “We’re never happy in the moment. We always want to innovate and grow our business and make it better. Our strategies are my strategies and our culture is my culture, and the way I look at it, we need to get better and better each day.”
After taking the helm at a transitional time as the company continues its voyage of recovery post-pandemic, it’s an approach that could well pay dividends for the business, its guests and the planet too.
