On The Deck: Ann Sherry

There are few greater worldwide marketing success stories than cruise within the Australian market. By its own definition the sector was highly unfashionable as recently as six years ago. The problem? The product was simply not suitable for the local market. It hadn’t been tailored to the wants and needs of those who should be on board spending their Australian dollars. So, fast-forward to the modern day and what’s changed? There is no doubt that the industry has undergone a massive turnaround, proof of which lies in Carnival Cruise Lines’ (CCL) decision to permanently deploy the Carnival Spirit to Sydney. We met Ann Sherry CEO of Carnival Australia to find out more about how the company has orchestrated one of the industry’s major success stories.

Could you explain your role and what that entails?

I’m CEO of Carnival Australia, which is the umbrella for the Carnival brand in the Australian market. We run the direct P&L for all the local P&O ships; the sales, marketing and ship deployments for Princess ships; Holland America; Seabourn and now the Carnival ship that is being located here too. We also look after the P&O and Cunard UK ships when they’re in town. We basically do whatever it takes to grow distribution to and sell all of the ships that come into our market. We sell Australia outbound and manage port relationships and destination development too! We’re an unusual beast.

And it’s the Carnival Spirit that moved to Australia at the end of last year?

Yes, the Carnival Spirit moved here at the end of October. It’s the first Carnival branded ship to be based year-round outside its traditional home.

So, a milestone for the region? Could you explain the work that had to go in to make that possible?

It happened on a few levels. There is a Carnival team within Carnival Australia that is very focused on the Carnival brand. One of the things we’ve done is to clearly define each brand within the market. It helps travel agents and passengers think about them. The Carnival team itself is incredibly focused and disciplined on knowing who each brand will appeal to. There’s nothing worse than having passengers on the wrong ship; people feel like fish out of water.

So how do you define a Carnival passenger?

In my opinion each ship needs a ‘hero’ attraction. Features are key for this market and for the Carnival branded ships that includes a big waterslide! It’s a point of differentiation and the team has done a really good job in putting all of that together.

What makes an Australian cruiser unique?

Whatever itinerary an Australian cruise does there is always going to be a number of sea days. So the ship has to be pretty self-contained. There have to be enough activities onboard to keep your ship’s passengers entertained. Now, that obviously varies hugely depending on your demographic. Australians aren’t content with just sitting in the sun all day either – they are very educated on the perils of skin cancer! So they want to go in the pool, they want to do things that have an energy about them. They also want an option to it outdoors in an informal way – something that’s especially the case with eating.

Is that the case for all meal times?

Not all, no. In the evenings people will eat in the dining rooms but in the day there has to be an outdoor dining option. With the P&O ships we have a big outdoor BBQ offering and that’s far more in keeping with the family Australian market. We do lots of focus groups past passengers and people who have never cruised before and we implement those changes. It’s about finding out what people really want to do on a holiday.

What nationalities typically board a cruise in Australia?

It depends on the brand and the segment. For our contemporary brands, which are Carnival and P&O, those customers are primarily Australians or New Zealanders. They’re families and couples whose average ago is around 40. The locally deployed Princess ships are the same nationalities but slightly older – probably around 50. The seasonal Princess ships have more of an older demographic with people flying in from the US and Asia mostly. It will still be 60% local though. It’s the same split as our Holland America ships. When the Queen Mary 2 comes into Australia normally half the ship gets off and we reload with Australians.

How recently have Australians taken to cruising?

In the last five years we’ve had double-digit growth every year. It’s been a very rapid rise in the number of people. And that’s the reason for the overarching structure here that has all of the brands. We’ve driven the build of the category. Cruising had become very unfashionable and we had to turn that perception around. It’s now fashionable to take a cruise in Australia.

How have you managed to turn it around?

Our home-brands have been really important to us. For starters we’ve had to bring people back to cruising that normally would have cruised. To do that we’ve had to start partnerships with local celebrity chefs and bring their restaurants onboard, developed destinations that we know people want to go to and developed experiences that are completely unique to cruise.  People want an experience they can’t get any other way, so we’ve looked at the destinations in the Pacific for instance that you can’t fly to. These are experiences you can only buy through cruising. That’s what makes us unique.

What’s the biggest challenge you face today?

Our biggest challenge is that our growth has far outstripped the development of port infrastructure in the region. Most of our ports are state owned so in stressed times, money for port infrastructure is really hard to get your hands on. One of our greatest successes is winning the right to share Garden Island with the Australian Navy. It means that we don’t have to have ships anchoring in the harbour because we can be so congested in the summer. It wouldn’t have been a great tourism experience and thankfully the power of the tourist dollar won out in the end.