Cruise360 Recap: Day Four
It seems like we just arrived yesterday and yet here we are reporting on the final full day of the 2016 Cruise360 Conference. Here’s what happened on day four:
We began the day with breakfast and General Session 3. The Keynote Address was delivered by Arnold Donald, President & CEO of Carnival Corporation Plc, the company that owns Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard, Costa, Seabourn, fathom and several others.
Arnold’s insightful and sometimes humorous remarks were followed by a luxury & river cruise panel featuring Gretchen Bell, Vice President of Sales, SeaDream Yacht Club; Katharine Bonner, Senior Vice President of River & Small Ship Cruising, Tauck River Cruises; Patrick Clark, Managing Director, Avalon Waterways; John Delaney, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing & Sales, Seabourn; Nicola Iannone, Executive Vice President, USA & Canada, CroisiEurope; Kristin Karst, Executive Vice President & Co-Owner, AmaWaterways; Carter Robertson, Vice President, Communications, American Cruise Lines/Pearl Seas Cruises; and Navin Sawhney, CEO, Ponant Yacht Cruises & Expeditions.
Each executive offered us tips on how to better sell the luxury market and also how to distinguish each of their brands.
General session 3 was followed by a full day of product updates from over a dozen cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Avalon Waterways, Paul Gauguin Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Silversea Cruises, Tauck River Cruises, AmaWaterways, CroisiEurope, Crystal Cruises, Windstar, American Cruise Lines, Ponant and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection. An executive from each line spent about 20 minutes offering updates on itineraries, new ships, new promotions and much more.
The Hawaiian Islands bought us lunch today. The wonderful folks at the Hawaii Visitor & Convention Bureau arranged a delicious chicken meal for us during which they told us all about their lovely islands.
The day ended with the second day of the Cruise360 Marketplace, this convention’s version of a trade show. We shot a couple of cool videos with fathom impact + travel and you can find those on our YouTube page.
We have a couple of events tomorrow but the majority of the conference is done. You can see photos, blog posts, videos and much more on our Cruise360 Page on our website. Thanks for following our updates from this amazing conference!