Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings plans to maintain pricing across its three brands, Norwegian, Oceania and Regent, as it believes its pricing strategy will lead to long-term benefits.

“We have stood firm on our go-to-market strategy of marketing to fill and maintaining price integrity by emphasizing value over price,” said Frank Del Rio, president and CEO, on the company’s first quarter earnings call.

“You have heard me say time and time again that we will not sacrifice our industry-leading pricing to temporarily bolster our load factors and I continue to stand behind that philosophy.

“Our go-to-market strategy of marketing to fill, versus discounting to fill and emphasizing value over price is paying off in droves, with pricing meaningfully higher for all future periods when compared to the comparable pre-pandemic periods.”

In the first quarter however, maintaining pricing led to slightly lower load factors, said CFO Mark Kempa.

“However, pricing remained robust in the quarter and onboard spend per person per day continues to be up meaningfully versus record 2019 levels,” he said.

Del Rio said he expected occupancy to be in the 65 percent range in the second quarter.

“Obviously when you look at the third and fourth quarter that’s going to continue to build. But we’re going to maintain our price discipline, our pricing integrity,” he explained.

“We are not going to chase short term load and damage the brand for the long term, we do not believe that’s not our strategy, and that is not the right strategy for our company.”