| Regent chief down under

REGENT Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) ceo and president Jason Montague made a flying visit to Sydney last week, meeting key industry partners and for the first time seeing the new Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings offices here.

Montague, pictured with RSSC sales chief Lisa Pile and NCLH Asia-Pacific president Steve Odell, hosted key industry partners at a special event to celebrate the line’s 25th anniversary – and also honoured Diane Patrick of Wiltrans for her 24-year contribution representing the line in Australasia.

The new NCLH office has built on this success, with Odell saying being able to offer Aussie dollar fares had “made a tremendous difference to how we sell”.

Also key has been the new local call centre – which now overflows into Hong Kong to offer full coverage right across the business day for agents all the way from New Zealand to Perth.

MEANWHILE Odell and Pile confirmed the line is no longer promoting its ‘fly free’ Business class offers which debuted this year (CW 07 Feb).

“We have gone back to a cruise only approach,” they said.

“Agents can do a much better job with the air…in the end our business is cruise…we want to concentrate on what we do best”.

A key factor is believed to have been the keenly priced tactical fares being promoted to consumers, which make it difficult for wholesalers to be competitive.