by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:00 PM ET, Fri January 27, 2017
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd chairman Richard Fain revealed in a conference call details about the cruise line's new mobile app that is scheduled to make its debut later in 2017.
According to the unofficial Royal Caribbean blog, Fain spoke during a fourth-quarter and year-end earnings conference call and mentioned the app-dubbed "Excalibur" internally-is expected to debut on between six and 11 ships over the next year.
After the initial rollout, the app would debut on between one and two ships a month until all vessels in the fleet are equipped. The innovations come after Royal Caribbean invested heavily in wearable RFID devices called WOWbands, which have helped simplify each passenger's stay on the company's ships.
"Technology can be used to help attack what is really our biggest single problem, which is not enough people understand about cruising," Fain said on the conference call. "Anything we can do to make the experience better and particularly easier for our guests and for the people who haven't yet been our guests, is very helpful."
Fain spoke about the "Excalibur" app after being asked how the company would respond to the introduction of Carnival Corporation's Ocean Medallion program. He said that the news was "a very positive thing for our industry," and that it helped cruising gain positive publicity, which is always good.
"I remember at the time that we rolled out WOWbands, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo's comment was we wanted to give people their first day back. And I think that's a really very good way to look at it," Fain said on the conference call. "The more that we can do to ease that process, not only makes it more comfortable for them, but gives them the time to do the other stuff. One of the benefits is not only more in ticket revenue, but also on the onboard revenue because we facilitate those kinds of processes."
"So I think this is a trend that is happening in our industry, but is happening throughout the industry and I think it will enhance the cruise experience and therefore, be good for all of us," Fain continued.
In addition to the new app and the wave of technology in the cruise industry, Fain talked about Royal Caribbean's earnings. In the fourth quarter, the company earned a net income of $261 million, and a net income of $1.2 billion for all of 2016. The company also revealed 2017 expectations, which will be earnings in the range of $1.48 billion to $1.53 billion.
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