| Cunard celebrates Australia

CUNARD’S vice president of international development, David Rousham, was in Sydney yesterday to formally announce the Australian deployment of Queen Elizabeth (see page 2).

Rousham also hailed the sensational ‘Royal Rendezvous’ over the weekend where Queen Elizabeth met Queen Mary 2 in Sydney Harbour, saying it had attracted strong global attention.

A particular coup was managing to position one of the ship’s captains atop the sails of the Sydney Opera House – which had him particularly chuffed as it made front page news in the UK.

Australia continues to be a key market for Cunard, with the fly-cruise market for its European and transatlantic voyages up a whopping 40% year-on-year out of the local market.

Rousham said very long itineraries were increasingly popular, with some Australian passengers booking 30-50 day cruises by combining back-to-back voyages on multiple vessels.

“We are thrilled at the ongoing development and success of Cunard in this market,” he said, citing the strong appeal the brand is showing for Australian cruisers.

Despite the stellar performance, however Cunard has no plans for a fourth ship at this stage, Rousham confirmed, with small capacity expansions delivered by “remastering” projects which are seeing extra cabins added to Queen Victoria and QM2.

Rousham is pictured above at the Carnival Australia offices in Sydney with the group’s head of corporate affairs, Sandy Olsen.