Andrea Zelinski
Royal Caribbean International resumed cruises in China in April, with the 2019-built Spectrum of the Seas sailing from Shanghai.
It was a big deal for parent company Royal Caribbean Group, as the world’s most populous country finally lifted its COVID-19 restrictions and the cruise line was now able to re-establish its presence there.
Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley said Spectrum’s China business had been strong, with volumes and rates “significantly higher” than when the line was available in 2019. Bookings were so strong that he told investors in April that the line would launch a second ship, the Ovation of the Seas, from Tianjin in 2025.
That strategy changed a few months later when the brand turned its attention to California, the world's sixth-largest economy and a region where Bailey says the company has “strong ambitions” to grow.
Royal deployed the Navigator of the Seas, a Voyager-class ship, to Los Angeles a year ago, and Bailey said the ship performed “exceptionally well.”
“We were faced with this choice: Should we deploy Ovation in Tianjin or should we deploy it in California?” Bailey said.
California wins. The eight-year-old Quantum-class Ovation will be homeported year-round in Los Angeles starting in May, becoming the second ship to do so as demand continues to grow on the West Coast. Compared to Navigator, Ovation can carry 1,000 more passengers.
How about sending Ovation to China?
While Royal has performed “very well” in China, Bayley said market performance “is not yet at the level we're seeing in the U.S. market.”
He said the decision to move Ovation to the West Coast was to maximize performance, but that “doesn’t mean we’re moving away from the China market.” In fact, he announced that the company will be deploying more in China in the future.
Royal is not the only cruise line returning to the Chinese market. MSC Cruises resumed sailings there in March.
Carnival Corp. so far appears uninterested in rushing to catch up, instead moving ships originally built for the Chinese market into the Carnival Cruise Line fleet and sailing primarily in the United States.
“We feel very good about where our assets are, where our brands are focused, and we’re going to take a wait-and-see approach,” CEO Josh Weinstein said at the Seatrade Cruise Global conference in April.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings isn’t looking at China right now either. Instead, a company spokesperson said all of Norwegian Cruise Line’s new ships will favor “fun and sun” markets like Bermuda and the Caribbean as it grows its fleet.
