TTG Travel Hall of Fame 2013 Star Cruises

Star Cruises

What is the one most important decision you have made to your business this year, in view of the competitive environment today?

We are always reviewing our business, looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to enjoy their experience with us, tapping best practices especially operation-wise, and most importantly, tracking consumer behaviours and trends.

Even having pioneered the Asian cruise industry 20 years ago, we are still constantly looking at ways to improve the business and our product offerings.

This year we have chosen new homeports for our vessels in Shanghai and Kota Kinabalu. We have ended the season in Shanghai with an even deeper understanding of the Chinese market and its customers.

We are just as excited about our deployment in Kota Kinabalu from November 6.

 

What is your goal for 2014?

We will be announcing our new deployment for 2014 soon and are looking forward to working with government agencies, tourism and port authorities, and corporate and travel trade partners to strengthen and tap on new source markets. We will continue to improve our product offerings, including new onboard entertainment content, a more expansive list of retail brands and a wider selection of shore excursions.

 

What must travel experts do to be even more valuable to you?

We are very grateful for the close relationships we have forged with our travel expert partners. We communicate frequently with them for feedback and ideas to improve our products. Many of them have upgraded their booking mechanisms and improved their marketing and sales channels. We appreciate that many of them continue to invest in training so that they are able to not only attract new entrants to the industry but also enlarge the talent pool that can be groomed into future stalwarts of the cruise industry. 

 

Credits to Mr William Ng, COO, Star Cruises