Norwegian Cruise Line vies for more OTA business

Norwegian
Cruise Line’s introduction of a bare-bones “Sailaway” fare in March was a bid
to improve business with OTAs, company CEO Frank Del Rio said in a conference
call.

The
Sailaway fares do not come with the standard value-add options, such as the
choice of a free beverage package, and cannot be combined with any such offers.
They provide only a guarantee of a category, not a specific cabin, and are
about $200 less than other Norwegian fares for a seven-day cruise.

Del Rio
said prices for cruises that had bundled value-add features were showing up on
OTAs as uncompetitive because of the extra value
built into the fares.

He said
OTAs are one of the main distribution channels for selling close-in inventory.

“One of the drawbacks of this channel is the difficulty of effectively
communicating non price-dependent offers to consumers,” Del Rio said. 

The Sailaway
offers were intended to give OTAs a fare that would not be priced above offers
from competitors for similar itineraries, he said.

“Sailaway
rates are cruise-only rates, with no value-adds, that will allow us to capture
business that we were temporarily not capturing,” Del Rio said. They
represent less than 10% of Norwegian’s inventory, he said.