Crystal President and CEO Tom Wolber said the company's focus in 2018 is on "stabilization" after launching adventure yachts, river cruises, luxury jets and a new reservations system over the past few years.
He vowed a renewed commitment to the travel agent community as well as the company's original product, ocean cruise ships.
"We reaffirm our commitment to you as we strive to be a pleasure to do business with," Wolber told high-producing travel agents attending the 27th annual agent gala aboard the Crystal Symphony.
The proclamation comes as Wolber expressed recognition of challenges accompanying the many changes at Crystal, which he noted included "rapid growth, new technology, and launching new ships and experiences," all at the same time.
"Everything that was going on needed to be done to prepare ourselves for new ships and new products, however, doing it all at the same time and launching products that were completely outside of our scope of competency, puts a tremendous strain on all departments, internally and externally," he said.
"So as we launched them and as we got through that, now we have to really, really stabilize all that and make sure that everything works. We'll take our learnings and then focus back on what makes us successful in the first place, and that is the ocean-going vessels. We kind of looked away from the ocean-going vessels for a while, and now we need to focus back on them because they truly are the heart and core of everything we do."
About 156 top-selling travel agents and guests are attending the gala in the Caribbean. To qualify, retailers must meet the threshold of $1 million in revenue.
Carmen Roig, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Crystal, said she has created a travel agent advisory council and is launching a trade integrity campaign.
"These are our travel partners," she said. "The majority of our business comes from this distribution channel, and they need support."
Crystal launched a new reservations system, Seaware, last June. "Our travel partners were used to our legacy system. But that legacy res system could not support this growth, it absolutely was not possible," she said.
"I know change is hard, but the internal change is also, because our reservations team had to learn the system and they were working on two systems. When you've lived 27 years with one res system, you are going to have that, it's a learning curve."
"When we say stabilizing, part of this trade integrity campaign that I talked about was listening to our partners, creating an advisory council, and asking 'what's your pain point, what are your struggle points?' At the end of the day, they're the ones who sell us and we need to hear what it is that they need as far as tools are," Roig continued.
"As we migrated to the new system, we also lost some capabilities and functionalities that they had before, so we've taken a whole list of those and our VP of IT will determine when is the time to bring them back in. When you get new technology, you want it to be better than what you had, and that was part of the frustration."
One of Crystal's top-selling travel agents, Ruth Turpin, owner of Cruises Etc. in Fort Worth, Texas, said the executives are taking the right steps.
"These last few years, especially the last year, has been a real challenge, because there's been a lot of staff personnel changes, and some misunderstanding about who we contact for different things," Turpin said.
"This morning, I was very encouraged, because I really feel like the executives, particularly Tom and Carmen, are on the right track. They want to hear us, they want to listen to us, and they are implementing many things. It remains to be seen how quickly they will happen, but I'm very excited about the future. I love Crystal."
On the positive side, the addition of river cruises and expedition yachts is attracting younger, more active travelers. On the river vessels-Crystal now has five-51 percent of the guests are new to Crystal. What's more, that figure is 64 percent on the Crystal Esprit yacht. All those new-to-Crystal travelers are younger, as well, raising hopes they will eventually "graduate" to the ocean ships and "stay in the embrace of Crystal," Wolber said.
The Crystal Serenity is undergoing a major renovation Oct. 14-Nov. 10 that will reduce capacity while increasing the crew slightly. Wolber said the project will overhaul penthouses, create new restaurants and enhance the spaciousness in the public areas.
Crystal's new ocean ship-now called the Diamond class-will be about 60,000 to 65,000 gross tons. This class also won't have private residences, as originally planned, because "it just will not work" on a passenger vessel, Wolber said. More details will be shared next year at the 28thannual sales gala.
The new expedition yacht Crystal Endeavour, due out in 2020, will be "a game-changer," Wolber said. It will have butler service, six restaurants including Nobu Matsuhisa's Umi Uma, and heated storage for drying wet or icy parkas after a day exploring. The 20,000-gross-ton yacht will have 100 veranda suites, including two Crystal Penthouses, eight Penthouse Suites and 90 deluxe suites.
Unique features in the spa-like suite bathrooms include dual vanities, heated floors, rainshower heads, and anti-fog mirrors. The yacht will also have a helicopter and a mini submarine.
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