Andrea Zelinski
Royal Caribbean International restarted cruise operations from China in April by deploying the 2019-built the Spectrum of the Seas from Shanghai.
This was a big deal for parent company Royal Caribbean Group. Covid-era precautions had finally lifted in the world's most populous country, and cruise lines could now rebuild their presence there.
The Spectrum's business in China was good, with volume and rate "significantly higher" than when the line was there in 2019, Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley said. Bookings were so good that he told investors in April that the line would send a second ship, the Ovation of the Seas, to sail from Tianjin in 2025.
That strategy changed months later when the brand turned its attention to California, a state with the sixth largest economy in the world and a region in which, according to Bayley, the company has "strong ambitions" to grow.
Royal had deployed the Navigator of the Seas, a Voyager-class ship, to Los Angeles a year ago, and it was performing "exceptionally well," Bayley said.
"We were kind of faced with this choice: Should we deploy Ovation into Tianjin, or should we deploy into California," Bayley said.
California won. The eight-year-old Quantum-class Ovation will homeport year-round in Los Angeles beginning in May, making it the second ship to homeport there year-round as demand continues to increase on the West Coast. In comparison with the Navigator, the Ovation carries an extra 1,000 passengers.
Why not send the Ovation to China?
While Royal has performed "very well" in China, Bayley said the market's performance "still hasn't reached the levels we're seeing in the American market."
The decision to move the Ovation to the West Coast was based on maximizing performance, he said, "but it doesn't in any way indicate that we're moving away from the China market." In fact, he suggested that the company would announce more deployment in China in the future.
Royal isn't alone in its return to the Chinese cruise market. MSC Cruises resumed sailing there in March.
Carnival Corp. thus far seems uninterested in rushing to follow them; it's instead moved ships originally meant for the China market into the Carnival Cruise Line fleet to sail largely in the U.S.
"We're very happy with where our assets are, where our brands are focused, and we'll take a wait-and-see approach," CEO Josh Weinstein said at the Seatrade Cruise Global conference in April.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings also isn't immediately eyeing China. Instead, a company spokesman said, any new ships from Norwegian Cruise Line will favor the "fun and sun" markets like Bermuda and the Caribbean as it grows the fleet.