If you have any doubts about the popularity of cruising read this with Regent Seven Seas Cruises, saying that it has achieved the largest booking day in the company’s 29-year history with the launch of its 2023-2024 Voyage Collection when sales opened at 10:30pm on 18 August 2021 and a suite onboard sold for $800,000!
They added that reservations surpassed Regent’s previous largest booking day, which was set on 21 October 2020 with the launch of its 2022-2023 Voyage Collection, by 15%.
Interesting travel trends identified from the booking day include a desire for longer, more exclusive experiences in bucket-list destinations, and a significant rise in bookings of the AUD $14,000 a-night Regent Suite and also more unfamiliar and exotic regions being reserved.
The latest record-breaking launch day is the line’s fourth in just under a year having broken their world cruise launch day twice, and now also their largest ever booking day twice.
The phenomenal achievements began with the launch day for its 2023 World Cruise in September 2020, closely followed with the launch day for its 2022-2023 Voyage Collection in October 2020 and most recently, in July 2021, the cruise line celebrated selling out its 2024 World Cruise in under 3 hours.
Jason Montague, president and chief executive officer, Regent Seven Seas Cruises said, “The outstanding result of our 2023-2024 Voyage Collection launch is the perfect spring-board as we welcome our first ship back to the ocean next month with the inaugural season of Seven Seas Splendor”, adding, “I’m proud to say that this is our fourth record-breaking launch day within a year, reinforcing the fact that luxury travellers continue to have a burning passion to explore the world and that Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ unrivalled experiences are extremely important to them”, and “It also shows how our loyal guests have throughout this challenging period continued to give us their unwavering support, and we are delighted to be able to offer them the luxury vacations they so richly deserve.”
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egent Seven Seas Cruises says that demonstrating that luxury travellers are still unwilling to compromise when they travel, the largest price tag on a single suite booking was AUD $800,000 (NZD $890,000), with the palatial, 412 square metre Regent Suite which including an in-suite spa with unlimited spa treatments, original Picassos, a private car and chauffeur in every port, and dedicated butler service among a host of other amenities. Overall, demand for this one-of-a-kind luxury experience, only found on board Seven Seas Explorer®, Seven Seas Splendor® and the soon to be launched Seven Seas Grandeur®- grows higher still, with bookings for the Regent Suite up by 64% when compared to the 2022-2023 Voyage Collection launch day.
While all itineraries were popular, notable destinations were Africa and Asia, with three of the top six itineraries booked focusing on the regions.
In addition, Northern Europe, particularly the Baltics attracted high levels of interest. The voyage which attracted the most bookings was a 21-night Istanbul, Turkey to Dubai, UAE sailing onboard Seven Seas Navigator which tours the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
Starting at AUD $13,210 (NZD $14,310) per guest and set to depart on 10 November 2023, the cruise’s popularity illustrates not only that luxury travellers are keen to explore exotic lands once again, but that they also want to make up for lost time with longer adventures at sea.
With overnights in both Israel and Egypt, as well as a transit of the Suez Canal, this port-intensive sailing epitomises the unparalleled destination immersion provided by the 2023-2024 Voyage Collection which, takes the travel experience to new levels.
A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor Global Travel Media and Global Cruise News.
