Ahead of Marella Cruises introducing its new flagship, Marella Explorer, managing director Chris Hackney revealed why Explorer’s launch will be ‘the best yet’, line’s fleet-wide all-inclusive strategy, and ‘significant’ trade growth.
Marella Explorer is the new flagship of TUI brand, and the 3rd vessel to launch in 3 years. The launch of the 1,924-passenger Explorer, formerly Mein Schiff 1, will take place in Palma, Majorca.
The ship will split its time between Palma and Bridgetown (in winter). It joins the fleet amid modernisation strategy that has “transformed” the line, and fuelled UK growth of over 20% in 2017, according to Hackney. He added that sales through independents had “grown significantly” over the past 3 years, and sales for the current winter season of Marella were 30% up year-on-year. 2018 summer programme was 60% ahead.
Marella’s new all-inclusive strategy drew attention in recent weeks. In March, the line announced its 6 existing ships (including Marella Explorer) as well as all future ships would become solely all-inclusive from 2019 summer. This followed Norwegian’s announcement for the UK market this past April.