Page 20 - 2025 China Market Report

CHINA
ROYAL CARIBBEAN
‘Remarkable
Recovery’
 Benjamin Bouldin, president of
Royal Caribbean International, China
“We have come back from
the pandemic at a remarkable
recovery speed. Because we
came back a couple of years
later than the world’s cruise
business, I think some of that
performance gets a bit lost
in the translation,” Benjamin
Bouldin, president of Royal
Caribbean International,
China, told Cruise Industry
News.
54 Cruise Industry News: 2025 China Market Report
ince we entered service on April 27, the reality is
“Sthat within four weeks we were back to load factors
of historical levels, and we have maintained that throughout
this year. To have a load factor that is just shy of 120 in our
first year back is a remarkable achievement. That is also real
evidence of the appetite for Chinese consumers to come back
and sail with us.
“Royal Caribbean is the only cruise line that has stayed
absolutely committed to the market,” Bouldin continued. “Yes,
we have had two ships, three ships and one ship, but we have
always been here, at least when we were allowed to, so from
that point we have been very consistent.
“And that is continuing into 2025,” he added. “The demand
from the trade is just remarkable. At the moment I am dealing
with questions about why we cannot provide more capacity
and how we can grow capacity more quickly. And while there
has been some price chatter in the marketplace, that has not
involved Royal Caribbean.”
Shanghai and Hong Kong
Bouldin said that the program Royal Caribbean currently
has on sale and has been offering with the Spectrum of the
Seas since April 27 of this year, offers a variety of sailings from
Shanghai, three, four and five nights up to seven and eight. He
noted that this also allows the cruise line to explore the various
ports that are available in South Korea and Japan. And the split
China deployment between Shanghai and Hong Kong allows
the Spectrum to go to some other destinations as well.
“The itinerary mix we can get from Hong Kong is a little
bit more diverse, which means we can target slightly better
weather,” Bouldin noted.
“The international markets seem to be historically drawn to
Hong Kong over the festive period, which gives us a unique
opportunity to bring more international guests to the market,
something that the Hong Kong Tourist Board is very support-
ive of.
performance. Historically, Hong Kong, has delivered excep-
“What it comes down to is where do you achieve the best
tionally strong results for us (in December and January), and
the booking demand out of Hong Kong at the moment is very
strong.”