Earlier this year, NCL revealed that it would home-port Norwegian Jade out of Southampton in 2017, seven years after it stopped sailing ex-UK voyages, and following a dry dock.
Speaking to TTG, Francis Riley said the UK still remained NCL’s biggest international market outside North America.
“This will be a good opportunity to test the market,” he said. Asked whether it could be the precursor to NCL placing one of its new ships – due for delivery in 2018 and 2019 – in the UK, he replied: “Let’s see how Jade gets on first.
“If we can demonstrate that [demand is there from] the UK market and European market, and we’ve got travel agent support to help us grow this, there’s an opportunity for us to consider bringing a new ship back to the UK.”
Norwegian Jade will share embarkation with Germany, which will alleviate some of the pressure from the UK market. “We look at where the big source markets are when we look to deploy ships, so we can share the risk,” Riley said.
It is hoped the move will mean there is more demand for Norwegian Getaway, which will be cruising from Copenhagen next year for the first time since its launch, and is “twice the size of Jade”.
Elsewhere, Riley heralded the launch of rival line Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, revealing it also offered a boost to NCL.
“We consistently see that with new ships we get extra interest. There’s a real peak in searches for cruise. No land-based opening gets the same attention that a new ship does.”
Meanwhile he insisted the line’s newest vessel Norwegian Joy, which is due for delivery next year, would be solely for the Chinese market, unlike Royal Caribbean, which is hoping to attract a number of western tourists onboard its China-based ships.
Despite this, the line is hoping to showcase the ship to UK travel agents before it sails to China, in order to give the trade a taste of what its other two new vessels may have to offer. Riley said there would also be a launch campaign to coincide with Norwegian Joy’s delivery.
