easyCruise.com is practically full in August '05! (that's only the fourth month of operation)

posted: 08.08.05

easyCruise continues to enjoy a very encouraging first season on the French and Italian rivieras, with high occupancy levels for a start-up company with a completely new product offering and a target audience different to established cruise lines.

In its very first month of business, May 2005, the ship easyCruiseOne filled 59% of its cabins. June has a 55% occupancy level and then there was a leap in July when 74% of the cabins were occupied. August already has a cabin occupancy level of 83%.

easyCruise allows passengers to join and leave the cruise where and when they wish on the weekly itinerary (subject to a 2 night minimum, 14 night maximum stay) which in practice means that the week-ends get fully booked before the mid-week segments and that is why the mid-80s in terms of occupancy is a natural maximum for this concept. easyCruiseOne is practically full in its fourth month of operation!

Another deviation from the norm in the industry is that the ship stays in port every night to allow passengers to enjoy the nightlife ashore. easyCruise is targeted at independently-minded people in their 20's, 30's and 40's and the average age of easyCruise passengers is currently 33, more than 20 years younger than the published industry average of 54 years old.

The most promising aspect of the new venture is that customer satisfaction levels are very high even with the fact that the ship has limited facilities on board relative to its much larger competitor ships . Of the 300 on-board feedback forms completed, 98% of passengers said they intended to enjoy another easyCruise in the future and many passengers have already re-booked for the winter season while on board.

Encouraged by the success of the Mediterranean summer season, easyCruise has already launched its winter 05/06 season in the Caribbean currently for sale at www.easyCruise.com with cabin prices starting at £9 per person per night, based on two people sharing a cabin.

One significant difference between the Summer and the Winter itineraries is that the cost of the flights to the Caribbean at peak times can exceed the cost of a cruise by a factor of 3 to 4. Moreover, unlike the short haul low cost airlines that operate in Europe, the vast majority of the deals on long haul flights are available through specialist travel agents.

In order to drive further sales for the weekly Caribbean itinerary, and to make life easier for those consumers who will go to their travel agent in order to book the flights, easyCruise.com is looking to establish relationships with the global distribution system booking engines used by travel agents so they can book the flights and the cruise at the same time in the same system. Negotiations with the so-called GDSs (global distribution systems) are still on-going but details will be announced shortly.

The expansion plans for easyCruise are already occupying a significant amount of Stelios' time, including negotiations with several ship yards for custom-designed ships as well as second hand ships for refurbishment. As Stelios has always maintained, no decision for further investments will be made before the Winter season is over.

The 'Cruise with Stelios' observational documentary series will start broadcasting across the Sky TV network with the first episode scheduled for the 4th of September at 8pm on Sky One. That should create further demand for the cruises operated by the company because although it is a 'warts and all' series it actually shows the vast majority of the customers having a lot of fun during their holidays!

For more information, high resolution images and bookings in the Mediterranean and Caribbean please visit www.easyCruise.com.