It’s a challenge P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow is relishing.

He’s fresh from hosting 600 day guests onboard the line’s newest ship, Arvia, in Southampton before the vessel sails to Barbados, where it will spend its maiden winter season ahead of repositioning to the Mediterranean in the summer.

Arvia’s launch means together with Excel-class sister ship Iona, P&O Cruises has an additional 41% ex-UK capacity to fill in 2023 compared with 2019. Tapping the new-to-cruise market will be vital to its success.

“Getting someone to take their first cruise has always been the big challenge,” Ludlow admits, speaking to TTG. “So we’re working really hard to show new-to- cruise guests why this is the best holiday choice.”

Ludlow believes the line’s onboard entertainment and culinary offerings will be key to attracting new business, as will its range of winter and summer destinations – Antigua, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Barcelona and Lisbon. “These places are on people’s lists for first-time cruising,” he reasons.

Ludlow identifies the cost of living squeeze as a potential fly in the ointment, but he’s nonetheless confident the downturn won’t deter potential new cruisers and existing customers from booking.

“Research continues to tell us people are not prepared to sacrifice their holidays,” he insists. “What I think we will see is people making these purchasing decisions slightly later than in the past.”

With that said, and despite us speaking in early January, Ludlow believes wave 2023 could be the line’s best “for a number of years”. “It’s still very early days, though” he cautions.

However, it is in agents – the line’s biggest distribution channel – that Ludlow and P&O Cruises will put their faith. “They bring us a huge amount of new cruise business, as well as repeat guests,” he shares. “They will always remain important to us.”

He continues: “Our Shine Rewards programme allows the trade to redeem points against prizes, and remain up-to-date with things they can use to sell holidays more effectively. We’ll continue to invest in our trade partners.”

P&O Cruises will launch Arvia and Iona’s ship visit and fam programmes this month, giving agents to experience the new vessels in Southampton.

Ludlow describes Arvia as P&O’s “sunshine ship”; it has been designed to maximise space, with its retractable Sky Dome, swim-up pool bar (a first for P&O Cruises), infinity pools and sunset eateries on the aft giving the ship an alfresco air.

“It’s about celebrating the outside,” Ludlow enthuses. “Even when you sit in the atrium, the glass on either side gives you great views of the outside world.”

’Aspiration’

And where better to experience that than in the sun-soaked Caribbean and on the Med? “For the foreseeable future, Arvia will remain in the Caribbean in the winter and the Mediterranean in the summer,” he adds.

Ludlow’s ambition is for P&O Cruises to continue “challenging traditional holiday choices”. “As a UK market leader for cruises, we have to think bigger than the industry,” he continues. “We need to remain relevant to the Britain of today.”

The line will also work to stay “aspirational”, but Ludlow admits this will remain a “moving target”.

“For the next few years, as Britain bounces back from the cost of living crisis and the pandemic, we’ve got to be ahead of what happens – we’ve got to make sure we predict the trends before consumers know what they are themselves.”