Princess Marks India As Largest Cruise Market

As the part of its global gameplan, Princess Cruise, which belongs to the world's third-largest cruise company P&O Princess Cruises Plc, has identified India as one of the largest market for its western cruise. The company has drawn up strategy to boost its Indian market share to 20 per cent by 2002.

Nishith Saxena, country head, Princess Cruise, said: "India, along with some other Asian countries, has been identified as the largest source market for our western cruise tours. As tourists from the US and western Europe are looking for more exotic locations, India with its huge upper middle class community can become the biggest passenger provider for its relatively traditional tours."

 

Although Princess offers exotic destinations in longer duration cruises ranging from seven nights to 72 nights, the tours which caught fancy of domestic travelers were Alaska and Europe tour.

"In 2001, almost 70 per cent of them have opted for Alaska cruises and cruise tours whereas 30 per cent are looking at exotic itineraries in Europe and Mediterranean," Saxena said.

Princess at present has five per cent market share of the estimated $2 million local market. The company hopes to corner at least 20 per cent by 2002 by aggressive pricing and by offering longer duration tours to exotic locations in Alaska, South America, South Pacific and Tahiti.

"We are trying to position Princess as a premium cruise brand, preferred by discerning and seasoned travelers who have already been through cruise experience," Saxena said.

Princess Cruise is also trying to consolidate its Indian operations by spreading out to different parts of the country. In the last five months, it has established offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.

The company is also very bullish about the Kolkata market although there has been a slow down in the travel market due to recent stock market crash. "We are looking at Kolkata to develop as a high revenue source market in the long run. Our focus is this year's Puja holidays and next year's summer vacations," Saxena said.

Princess Cruise now offers more than 150 itineraries ranging from seven to 72 days with 10 ships. Six new ships will join Princess' fleet by 2004, doubling the size of the company to more than 30,000 berths, carrying nearly 1.5 million passengers a year. The other companies in the P&O fold are P&O Cruises and Swan Hellenic in the United Kingdom and Aida Cruises in Germany.