Global uncertainty is creating a sense of urgency among guests in the ultra-luxury cruise market, according to Seabourn President Mark Tamis.

While sales of physical luxury goods may have softened slightly, the desire for high-end, once-in-a-lifetime travel experiences is actually accelerating, he said.

“Uncertainty hasn’t really suppressed demand for us. What it tends to do is refine the demand,” Tamis explained.

“Somebody might wait to buy the purse, but it might actually accelerate their desire for the experiences that we provide. There’s almost a sense of urgency to go on these voyages and create these lifetime memories.”

Tamis said Seabourn is capitalizing on a financial advantage over traditional luxury resorts to drive bookings and attract these guests.

“When you think about the spread between a land-based vacation and a cruise vacation, it’s somewhere between 20 and 40%. In the luxury space, it’s probably more than 40%,” Tamis said, adding that the brand delivers a very consistent product.

The ultra-luxury cruise segment is currently seeing unprecedented visibility thanks to the recent influx of hotel brands entering the cruise industry, Tamis said.

Rather than viewing these new competitors as a threat, Tamis said they serve as a major catalyst for overall market growth.

“One of the best things that has happened in the luxury space is seeing some of these brands with incredible loyalty coming into the space,” he said.

“It just expands the pool for all of us. Now they have a new clientele, a new guest population considering cruise.”

For a traditional player with over 35 years in the market, these new players provide a unique opportunity to showcase an established onboard culture, Tamis added.

Tamis noted that a whole new set of eyeballsis looking at the luxury cruise niche and, once they complete their first sailings, they will start exploring to find the right brand for them.

Seabourn’s competitive edge relies on what Tamis described as the blend of art and science in hospitality.

The art of the operation centers on genuine, highly personal interactions between the crew and the guests, he explained, a dynamic that contrasts with land-based luxury service models.

“A perfect stay at a resort is if you never see the housekeeper. You leave the room, and you come back, and the room is clean. That would be an awful experience on a cruise vacation.”

“The idea of learning about that person, engaging with them, sailing a couple of years later, seeing them again on the ship, and they remember you; that really is what makes it so special.”

To ensure that level of personalized service is delivered consistently across the company’s fleet, Seabourn relies on the science of data capture and artificial intelligence.

“The science then is how to capture that, how to institutionalize it, how to put it into a process plus AI,” Tamis noted, highlighting new technologies.

“There’s AI to pull out what we would want as personalization, and then how to take the science and bring it back to the art, which is that interaction between the crew.”