Marketing ACC

Hello Mr. Pimentel,

First, thank you again for coming back to Cruise Critic to answer more questions. I really appreciated your response to my question back on January 25 regarding new itineraries. I felt like you were talking directly to me and wanted to respond, but the thread was locked after each question was answered. I am an artist/photographer and always looking for exotic itineraries first. Thank you again.

[B]Better Marketing of Azamara Club Cruises[/B] - What I would like to know is how you plan to better market ACC? We still find that most people we speak to have never heard of the cruise line, and are also aware that most cruises are going out with empty cabins. I am assuming that the fare increases that were implemented a few years ago when you took over would have made the line profitable if the cruises were selling better. But, now it seems you are raising the fares substantially again with the assumption you can be profitable even if some cabins remain empty. I am sure your goal is to have each cruise depart full.

[B]Better Marketing of Shore Excursions[/B] - I was somewhat surprised to find out that most of the shore excursions were not selling, even at the 50% off LDS. We took many of those excursions last year even though we typically do not take ships excursions, and I routinely put together private excursions for groups of no more than 10 passengers. Earlier this year I put together about 12 days of touring on another cruise line, including a flight over the Nazca Lines in Peru, and a private trip to Machu Picchu leaving from Lima and meeting the ship in Ecuador. On our Quest cruise to Southeast Asia in 2010, I arranged a trip to Angkor leaving from Cambodia and meeting the ship back in Bangkok, and also chartered a boat down the Mekong. I am only mentioning this because I know what is involved in putting together interesting excursions. Most of the ones we took with Azamara were pretty standard, but we booked because of the 50% off price and thought with the exception of the tour operator you used in Turkey, they were pretty good.

The ACC shore excursions we took last year had an average of 18 passengers. That was good for us, but not good for the cruise line. It also meant that just about all of them were in danger of being canceled. I think one problem is that the excursions come out too late and near the departure date. The AzAmazing evening events sound good, and we will look forward to that on our next ACC cruise. But, I think your day time shore excursion offerings should be just as exciting, but also need to be loaded into the system much earlier. As far as marketing, on other cruise lines once you make a payment you receive emails enticing you to purchase shore excursions, regardless of whether you are booked through the cruise line or through an outside travel agent.

[B]Better Marketing on sister ships[/B] - It seems you have a built in audience on Celebrity cruise ships (maybe RCCL), yet they never have any Azamara brochures, and do not make any effort to sell your cruises. Perhaps you need to add an incentive (or better incentive) regardless of whether the booking gets turned over to an outside travel agent.

[B]Others ideas [/B]- I also suggested that you sell laundry packages for the length of the cruise. They are very popular on HAL and are $7.00 per day for the cabin (two people) and have to be bought for the entire length of the cruise, so on a 10 night cruise would cost $70.00. Pressing is $4.00 per cabin per day, and can be bought independently. We have paid for pressing only on a 7 night cruise. It could be additional income for ACC.

I am looking forward to you thoughts on better marketing your company.

P.S. I am still looking for that itinerary down the Amazon River. Maybe in 2015.

I agree with everything regarding the poor marketing - especially in the UK. Celebrity is now very well known here but NO-ONE I speak to have ever heard of Azamara, the website is dire & it's impossible to get a brochure.

Agree also re promoting the excursions - we have never received any emails or other contact, reminding us to book excursions. Why not?

Finally re Laundry, another option is to have a laundry package. For internet we get a can buy packages of minutes as well as get some via the Loyalty Club. For laundry it appears that you need to be a member at a certain level to get a Free bag of laundry but cannot pay for a bag separately. We only used self-service last trip but if we could buy a 'bag', we certainly would.