Senior vice-president Paul Ludlow told TTG the new sailings to destinations such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman would help “unlock a new generation of cruisers” for the British line.
P&O announced last night (March 7) that it will deploy its vessel Oceana to Dubai for five 10-night sailings between January and March 2019.
“It’s a really dynamic and aspirational part of the world to want to go to and therefore I think there will be a lot of people who will want to do it on a cruise that haven’t considered a cruise before,” Ludlow said.
Ludlow said the region had “massive potential” for both P&O and the wider UK cruise industry.
“I think the cruise sector is only about 4% of the UK holiday market yet you look at the number of British guests going to Dubai – over a million a year – and you think about the incredible potential for cruise.”
As part of the new season, P&O will partner with Emirates to fly guests to Dubai for a one-night stay before boarding.
The line’s Arabian Gulf programme will go on sale later this month - ahead of its main winter 2018‑19 programme.
Ludlow said the line would be running competitions and fam trips to get agents out to the Arabian Gulf adding, that once Oceana is stationed in the region there would be “plenty of opportunities” for travel consultants to come onboard.
Ludlow explained the line’s intention was to use Oceana, which currently spends its summers based in Malta for Mediterranean sailings, as a “year-round” fly-cruise vessel.
He added that the new Arabian Gulf programme highlighted P&O’s desire to “keep innovating” when it came to destinations and showcased its wide range of product.
“You can’t rest on your laurels and you have to keep innovating as hard as it is at the moment and new destinations are a way we’re do that,” Ludlow added.
“For P&O to say in the winter we’ll have Caribbean, ex-Southampton, world cruise and now Arabian Gulf as well, I think that choice is going to be really compelling.”
