ROYAL Caribbean Group (RCG) is not done ordering river cruise ships, with more set to be ordered for Celebrity Cruises, and potentially even Silversea, President & Chief Executive Jason Liberty (pictured) said.
Celebrity will introduce its first two river ships in 2027 (CW yesterday), then will add four each year, Liberty said in RCG’s earnings call yesterday.
RCG will then consider deepening its river product, such as entering its other brands like Silversea into the market, and deploying its river ships to other waterways around the world.
“We are very intentful in our words…the word put in front of it was ‘initial order’…and so this is not a hobby for us…we are going into this space,” he said.
“As we build up this kind of engine for river under Celebrity, it will certainly provide opportunity for our ultra-luxury guests to consider a river experience under Silversea,” Liberty added.
“Just watching the amount of interest from our travel partners, from our guests to get on one of our riverboats as soon as possible is exceptional.”
RCG will not be waiting until 2027 to order more river ships, Liberty said, although he did not reveille when the next tranche will be on its way.
“Our ability to scale this, we could probably be the second-largest operator, and it would be significantly less money than the Xcel 2 ship that we just bought,” he added.
“It’s not something that has a high barrier of entry on a cost, but there is a high barrier in terms of the execution and making sure we can do this in a flawless way.”
Celebrity’s river cruise product will not aim to draw on guests from any other river line, Liberty explained; rather, it is about pulling on RCG’s passenger base, and keeping its passenger within its family of brands – and creating broader appeal for its product.
“This is about leveraging this incredible sort of business that we have, this incredible flywheel, the incredible leading brands in each one of their segments and making sure that we keep them inside of our ecosystem,” the RCG head explained. MS
