Debbie Donze's business is booming. In the last year, sales at her meeting planning company have grown by at least 50 percent. And in the last 18 months, she's hired six new employees -- doubling the size of her staff. As unusual as that is, she's not running her business any differently. She hasn't spent more on marketing or asked for less in fees. Instead, after 15 years of planning meetings on cruise ships, Debbie Donze has found herself in the right place at the right time.
"It's just amazing," says Donze, managing director of Cleveland, OH-based Cruise Meetings, "If I go to a meetings industry event now, as soon as everyone knows I do cruises, they just latch on to me. Even if there are only eight planners there, literally five of them will ask me for information."
Donze's boost in popularity isn't a fluke. It's a function of the larger trend of growing interest in the stateside cruising market, or in those cruises whose itineraries stay relatively close to home rather than venturing to distant shores. Three-to-five-day itineraries that hug the North American coastlines are attracting an increasing number of meetings. Major cruise lines, who saw their international business wither after September 11, have begun to focus on this market. As a result, cruise lines are offering more short, nearby itineraries than ever before. And to court the meetings market, these companies have also begun to build meeting-specific facilities onboard.
There's no place like home
By all accounts, September 11 changed everything in the cruise market. Before then, says Andy Stewart, senior vice president of marketing for Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL), the company's ships were anything but close to home. "At the time, our fleet were spread all over the world, and we were the most diverse in terms of deployment throughout Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean," he says. "But [after 9/11], it became clear that close-to-home itineraries were going to be extremely popular, because they removed the airplane from the equation." Since 2001, NCL has more than doubled the number of its North American departure ports, from six to 14. And in 2002, NCL introduced its "Homeland Cruising Program," an initiative whose very name evokes images of security and whose purpose is to promote close-to-home itineraries specifically to corporate groups.
And NCL isn't alone. "All the cruise lines really turned on a dime and started opening ports," says Richelle Taylor, director of marketing and sales administration for Miami-based Landry and Kling Meetings at Sea. "Miami and Fort Lauderdale are not the only ports anymore." Cities seeing significantly increased cruise traffic include New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charleston, SC, and Norfolk, VA. Planners say the added convenience of these ports and variety of their itineraries drives much of the trend toward shipboard meetings. "Recently, we've found the reception among our clients to be higher for these types of ports," says Jeff Broudy, executive vice president of Philadelphia-based United Incentives. "They have a lot of different itineraries going to different places, particularly short-haul incentive trips."
And the interest in these ports extends far beyond city limits. "We're seeing a lot more interest in the East Coast, even if it means adding a cross-country flight," says Renee Pierce, who works in the incentive, meeting, and group division of Sacramento-based Giselle Travel. "We've probably had four or five different corporate groups that wanted to do something like that in the last year, where I'd never before had a corporate group wanting to go that far."
Popular itineraries from domestic ports include New England/Canada, mid-Atlantic/Bermuda, as well as cruises to Alaska. "Alaska is really hot right now for those wanting something different," Taylor says. "Cruises through the glacier bays with the nature and landscape make a really amazing and rewarding incentive."
And as the variety of departure ports grow, cruise lines are working to update offerings in traditional regions, such as the Caribbean. "People who thought, 'Been there, done that,' are now seeing many more unique offerings -- not the same old, same old," says Taylor. Rather than calling on such typical ports as St. Martin or St. Thomas, cruisers are now stopping at lesser known locales, such as St. Barts or St. Kitts.
Seminars at Sea
With the cruise industry's added focus on meetings comes the addition of meeting-specific facilities. "More ships now have conference centers and convention facilities," says Donze. "We work with Fortune 500 clients, and now the ships are big enough that they can handle the larger groups." All the major cruise lines have invested in meeting facilities, if not meeting-specific ships, including NCL, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, and Carnival. Some lines even offer access to private ports and, in some cases, private islands for group use. "It's like a big floating hotel, with the added benefit of being able to plan activities around the different ports," says Donze.
But unlike hotels, all the costs involved in planning a meeting on a cruise ship are included. "It's one-stop shopping as far as planning goes," says Jennifer Beam, who plans meetings and handles membership for Raleigh, NC-based Professional Engineers of North Carolina (PENC). "The all-inclusive aspect is so much easier, and recently it's really begun to hit home," says Pierce. "It's great if [the company] is looking at total cost or pricing the meeting out on a line-by-line basis."
Most importantly, planners say, cruise meetings exclude the ad hoc costs usually incurred in land-based meetings. "You have all the activities you'd find at a resort," Donze says. "Golfing, swimming, entertainment, and it's all included in the price."
Michael Key, meeting planner at Baltimore, MD-based Monumental Life Insurance Company recently took a 1,500-person conference on a New York/Halifax cruise and says the all-in-one cost structure was a substantial advantage. "From a budget standpoint, it was much easier. I knew exactly what my costs were: the audiovisual, the theater, and all the other meeting space was included in the price." Key says his members particularly enjoyed not only all the onboard activities but also the meals, also included in the price. "You can eat forever," he says. And it paid off. In the end, Key estimates he paid $100 less per head than what he'd normally spend and says the attendee feedback was "very positive."
Pierce says the inclusive structure is especially appealing for corporate incentive events. "It makes it easier for the company to say this trip is definitely an incentive," she says. "Everything is paid for -- they're not asking for anything out of the attendees' pockets, in some cases not even for drinks."
The all-inclusive meeting packages offer another benefit aside from cost: convenience. Major cruise lines employ dedicated meeting coordinators on each ship who assist planners with the onboard execution of the meeting. Key says on his cruise, there were five cruise consultants onboard who helped him run the meeting. "They helped to make sure the general sessions happened, helped us set up the theater, including the stage and the lighting -- all things I would have had to pay for separately on land," Key says. "They take care of it, of you, of the rooms. It was a very simple conference to manage onboard."
Rough waters
Still, planning meetings on cruise ships comes with its own set of complications. Key observes that normally, he can book events two to three years in advance at a hotel and feel confident that his contacts will still work there when the date rolls around. But "the problem with the ships is that the staff is constantly changing." Additionally, planners who've used cruise ships say that the preliminary planning and logistics are often more complex than with hotels. "It's always a bit more challenging to put on a meeting on a ship," admits Donze. "If you don't charter the entire vessel, you'll have other passengers moving about, using the same facilities, sometimes up to half an hour before the start of your session." For Key, the lion's share of the hassles he faced involved organizing attendee quarters. "I had to assign 750 cabins and to make sure that the couples got in doubles, the ones with their kids got into the quads, and so forth," Key says. "So it took a bit more to get us there, but once we got there, it was fine."
And then there's the PR effect. In an austere economic climate, booking a conference or meeting on a cruise ship can sound a bit extravagant. As the PENC's Beam says, "It's one thing to say 'I'm going to Chicago for a conference,' but it's another to say 'I'm going on a cruise.' " But increasingly, planners say this sentiment is giving way to the budgetary reality. "There's definitely been a mood swing in that regard," says Giselle's Pierce, especially after people learn of the costs.
Going forward, cruise lines are dedicated to opening still more ports around the country and offering still more short, close-to-home itineraries. "In our view," says NCL's Stewart, "it's the key to the growth of cruising over the next few years." And for meeting planners, that will translate into more meetings at sea. "It's made cruise meetings so much more popular," say Donze. And easier: "They're bringing the ships to us."