By Donna TunneyPrincess Cruises is getting ready to sell through Japanese travel agents and tour operators in anticipation of its 2013 entry into the Japan source market.
The line, a Carnival Corp. brand, will deploy its 2,022-passenger Sun Princess on a series of cruises next spring and summer from Kobe and Yokohama.
To support the deployment, Carnival Corp. has created Carnival Japan, a Tokyo-based marketing unit that will also serve other Carnival Corp. brands in Japan.
Princess is finalizing a Japanese language version of its agent booking tool called Polar Online and will make changes onboard the Sun Princess, including adding Japanese-speaking staff.
According to Jan Swartz, executive vice president of Princess, the line no longer will sell to Japanese customers through a general sales agent in Japan.
"The Carnival Japan office will now act as the sales agent for Princess Cruises, Cunard and Seabourn," Swartz said. Neither Cunard nor Seabourn will base ships in Japan, however.
The Sun Princess will operate a series of nine- to 12-day itineraries next April through July.
The company said it expects the vessel to carry 18,000 passengers during the 2013 deployment in Japan.
Eiko Kijima, president of Cruise Vacations Inc., will oversee Carnival Japan's Tokyo office. Kijima has been Princess Cruises' general sales agent in Japan for the last 20 years, Swartz said. She also is listed as an executive officer with the Japan Association of Travel Agents.
Japan cruises aboard the Sun Princess will open for sale next month.
"Our new Japan deployment is three times larger than that of any competitive international cruise program," Alan Buckelew, Princess CEO, said in a statement.
"It's the very first time a global cruise line is offering a full season of cruises from April to July designed specifically for passengers from Japan," he added. "We believe that our unique itineraries and onboard experience will prove extremely popular and will help to introduce cruise vacations to a growing number of Japanese vacationers."
Highlights of the Japan itineraries include overnight stays at cities with popular annual festivals, destinations known for their natural hot springs, northern ports of Japan and ports in Korea and Taiwan.
According to Carnival Corp., dining room menus onboard the Sun Princess will offer international cuisine but will add offerings that cater to Japanese tastes, and an a la carte sushi bar will be opened. Other amenities such as the shopping selection and spa treatments will also be tailored to Japanese preferences, and onboard collateral items and cabin information will be translated into Japanese, Carnival said.
Carnival Corp. brands and other cruise lines in recent years increasingly have been sourcing from markets outside the U.S.
Carnival's Costa Cruises brand, for example, last year launched Costa Cruises Shipping Service, a wholly owned foreign enterprise, to sell Costa Cruises' products through Chinese travel agents, general sales agents and directly to Chinese consumers. Costa in May will increase its capacity in China, when the 2,400-passenger Costa Victoria replaces the smaller Costa Classica at its homeport in Shanghai.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has said that its foreign passenger sourcing will exceed 50% this year.
Royal Caribbean International this year deployed its 3,100-passenger Voyager of the Seas to mainland China, joining the 1,800-passenger Legend of the Seas, which has been operating there since 2010.
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