Cuba to Greece: What's Next for Celestyal Cruises

TravelPulse had the chance to chat with Leslie Peden, the new North American President of Celestyal Cruises about the brand’s latest and future endeavors.

TravelPulse: For those not familiar with Celestyal, what would you say makes its cruises standout from mainstream lines?

Leslie Peden: There are three key factors. The first one would be that we are authentically Greek, and by that I mean we’re the only cruise line that actually homeports in Greece itself. We obviously enjoy taking guests around the Greek islands as well as Turkey in a very authentic and Greek way.

So, what does that mean? In terms of the onboard product, we carry the destination. We bleed the DNA of the destination through our product both on and off the ship. For example, we have local artisans onboard the ships, and they are selling beautiful handmade Greek jewelry, olive oil [and] leather goods.

Also, all the entertainment and the food are Greek in terms of the history and the storytelling, and the freshness and the quality of the Greek food served with an international flair in our restaurants onboard.

The other thing that makes us uniquely different—for which we’ve actually been recognized by Cruise Critic with five Choice Awards in 2017—is the fact that we deliver consistently tremendous value for money. We have a very simplified embarkation process which we’ve also been recognized [for]. In true Celestyal Cruises passion, we wanted to [exceed] guest expectation[s] in every area that they touch.

We deliver this through an all-inclusive experience. We offer a drink package that’s included [for] both complimentary alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages with a really good choice of premium brands as well. And we do offer the guests an upgrade option to just a broader selection of premium brands.

The beauty for our travel agents as well is that if they presell the upgrade option for the drink package, they will also earn additional commission on it as they do on the entire package when they sell the initial cruise with us, which is again very unusual. We are tremendously trade-friendly.

The other component is our shore excursions. We do include shore excursions in the price of the cruise. On our 3- and 4-day cruise, we have two shore excursions included there. And on our seven-day, we have three excursions included. Once again, if agents want to presell additional shore excursion options, that’s possible, for which they’ll earn their full commission on those components as well.

Things like port charges and gratuities are once again part of our all-inclusive proposition. The beauty of this is that guests know that really everything is accounted for and they’re not going to be nickled and dimed once they’re onboard the ship. And it’s really all about the experience.

TP: How does Celestyal deliver guests to the Greek destination differently?

LP: A key differentiator for us from the mainstream cruise lines is that our ships are of the small to medium size nature, so that allows our vessels to get into smaller ports in the Greek islands that would otherwise not be accessible by the larger ships—the mega ships.

It allows us to introduce our guests and our agency partners to islands that are less well known but offer great differentiation from perhaps another Greek island they just visited. Then it also allows us to overnight the ships in these very destinations as well in order for our guests to truly experience the authentic Greece.

TP: Has the current climate in Turkey affected your sailings to that destination at all?

LP: Absolutely not. In fact, we’ve seen a triple-digit growth in business in the Aegean, which includes our visitation to Kusadasi for Ephesus in Turkey. It’s a tremendously popular choice for our guests, and in fact, 99.9 percent of our guests want to go to Turkey.

[Regarding] issues around visas, our guests could actually still visit Turkey because they were covered by a general visa that all of us cruise guests are included on. So whilst others were not able to travel to Turkey, we continued to service this region and make it accessible to our agency and consumer partners.

READ MORE: Celestyal Extends its 2018 Sailing Season

TP: What is being newly offered in the Greek isles?

LP: In the theme of what I was saying about making some of the other Greek islands more accessible to guests and agents, we’re introducing a new seven-day Idyllic Aegean itinerary in 2018, and that will actually allow guests to overnight in the marquee ports of Mykonos and also in Santorini.

They get the two sunsets in Santorini, and they get to really enjoy the nightlife in Mykonos, which is when it really comes to life. We have this beautiful island of Milos as well, and Milos has been recognized for the most beautiful and varied beaches in the world—some of which are actually only accessible through sailboat because you go through these beautiful lagoons and caverns in order to actually reach these beaches.

So, that’s something that we’re really excited about.

We also will continue to offer the option of Kusadasi for Ephesus, and we’re the only cruise line to do so, making Turkey very accessible for those cruise guests wanting to enjoy a UNESCO World Heritage site like Ephesus.

TP: How do you plan to target the U.S. market more?

LP: First of all, we are increasing our sales presence for our trade partners which is vitally important as we continue to grow and heighten the awareness of the Celestyal brand in North America. So, we’re actually hiring five additional people here in North America.

I’ve just appointed Gordon Dirker, formally of Hurtigruten. He joined the team three weeks ago as the Vice President of Business Development for North America, and all the business development managers will report to Gordon. Additionally, we’re adding three business development manager positions, and these are all new incremental roles. One will be in the southeast of the U.S. The second one will be in the northeast of the U.S. And the third will be based on the west coast.

In addition to that, we are also bringing to North America for the first time the marketing function to support our trade partners as well. We’re just in the throes of appointing a marketing manager that will be based here to support those partners where we’re doing call-up marketing campaigns.

TP: Celestyal has just revealed its decision to pull out of Cuba in February, correct?

LP: That is correct. However, I wouldn’t necessarily say that we’re pulling out of Cuba. It’s more of a case of that we are just redeploying the ship to the Aegean for the moment because we’re seeing historic return in visitor numbers to Greece.

For example, in 2017 there were over 36 million visitors to Greece, which was a 9 percent increase versus the same time the previous year. And in 2018, we’re actually seeing no letup in demand for the Greek islands.

In order for us to really satisfy that demand, what we’re doing is we’re repositioning the Crystal, which is currently in Cuba, into the Aegean to allow us to extend our seasonality, which is one of our key objectives.

READ MORE: Onboard With Celestyal Cruises

We’re actually going to be starting the season a month earlier, at the end of March now instead of the end of April. And we’re also going to extend the season in the fall through the first couple of weeks of November, with the future actually going year-round.

The Cuba operation has served us really well in the last five years, and the response from the trade has been very very good. However, in order for us to really satisfy the demand in our home market, we really need to redeploy the ship into the Aegean right now.

That’s not to say that we will not return to Cuba. We are very much leaving that door open, but for now, we are going to be taking the ship back to the Aegean.

For travel agents, there’s a web portal where they can register to make bookings directly and earn commissions here: http://helpdesk.celestyalcruises.com/en/form/5/travel-agents-registration.html