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SkySea Cruise Line, a joint venture between Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Chinese OTA Ctrip.com International, was conceived in 2013 when the Chinese market was served almost exclusively by older ships.
However, as bigger and newer ships arrived in China, SkySea failed to establish a sustainable role, said president Ken Muskat. As reported last week, the one-ship line will sail its final cruise in the fall.
SkySea began sailing in 2015 with the Golden Era, a 22-year-old ship that formerly sailed as the Celebrity Century. Since then, cruise lines have deployed new ships to China: the Norwegian Joy, Majestic Princess, Ovation of the Seas and Quantum of the Seas. That left less oxygen for SkySea.
“The fact of the matter is, [Chinese] consumers and travel agents desire the newest and biggest ships and prefer the well-known cruise brands that have entered this market in a big way,” Muskat said. “While SkySea successfully created a niche and made a name for itself, it was difficult to compete in building brand awareness and preference versus the big guys.”
When SkySea was announced, RCCL chairman Richard Fain said it would be a “national cruise line for China.”
Meanwhile, RCCL pursued a parallel strategy in China with its Royal Caribbean brand, which became the first non-Asian cruise line to put a new ship there when it announced the deployment of the Quantum of the Seas to China in June 2014. It was a game-changing announcement, and other lines soon followed.
As the Chinese desire for new ships became clear, SkySea changed course. Under Muskat’s direction, SkySea diversified the number of ports it was sailing from, moving to second- and third-tier ports such as Xiamen, Shenzhen, Qingdao and Zhoushan.
It also began focusing more on the meetings and incentives market, which Muskat said was well-suited for a midsize ship carrying 1,840 passengers. It also redesigned its website and became a leader in theme cruises, with an emphasis on music and lifestyle.
This year, it unveiled a novel deployment experiment, scheduling a month of sailings from Taiwan in October. But it was to no avail.
The Golden Era will be sold to TUI-owned Marella Cruises, which plans to make it an adults-only ship.
Source: travelweekly.com