Well, hello again everyone. Welcome to our latest webcast that we're bringing you from Travel Weekly. I'm with Michael Bayley, the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean. We're in the UK at your UK offices. So, welcome.
Fantastic. Thank you. And it's so lovely to see you again.
When was the last time you were here, Michael?
Okay. Sorry. I'm sorry. No, I was here about a year ago where we were here for a couple of days and yeah, and I can come as frequently as I can.
Yeah. And I know you've just done a really cool thing in the atrium. You've been doing a game with all the staff which is fantastic. I know they love seeing you.
Best presentation I've ever seen in my four decades of corporate existence. It was fantastic. Creative.
Brilliant. All right. Well, listen, thank you for spending the time with us today. Especially since I know you've just been named travel executive of the year, Michael. I mean, there's an accolade.
You know, I was up all night filling out those applications. It took me a long time. I couldn't sleep, but I got them all in and yeah, I'm pleased.
You must have been pleased. That's a really nice thing.
It was a nice recognition. Yeah.
And it's for you, but it's obviously for what you've been doing at the company.
I think it's as I said when I received that award, I said it's never a me thing, it's a we thing. And I feel like Royal has been really a driver of innovation in the cruise and destination space. And you know for travel partners that is a really positive element because it gives you new creative products to sell and I think that's why the recognition was just so great.
Yeah. Brilliant. Well that's interesting you talk about cruise and destination now. This is a whole new way of talking about Royal Caribbean. You are not just a cruise line anymore. You want to talk all about your land-based offering and of course you've got your beach club opening in a week or so now.
Well, we'll be there on this Saturday. We'll be in Nassau for the official opening of the Royal Beach Club in Nassau. It is stunning. I mean, it's beautiful. I think what's going to happen is when people start really engaging with that product, the feedback's going to be extraordinary. It's just killer.
Okay. All right. Well, we cannot wait to see some pictures of that. And then, of course, you've announced another one in Santorini, which we're very excited about because, you know, coming to Europe and Santorini is like a real sort of iconic destination. So tell us what you're going to be doing there and why you're excited about that.
So that's right. Santorini is I can't remember where it stands on the grand scheme of things, but it's in the top three destinations in Europe and it is incredibly important. People love going to Santorini. Everybody wants to take that iconic picture with the blue domes and it's just a very important destination. And there are some challenges with Santorini because of course of the over-tourism and the amount of people who are going to the destination. So, we thought it was important to kind of rethink that experience as part of our overall destination strategy. And so, we think that the acquisition of an existing beach club and then the redevelopment of that to a Royal Beach Club combining it with what's called the Ultimate Santorini Day is going to be a winner. It's going to deliver much higher guest satisfaction, and it's going to allow people to move around and do what they want to do instead of just docking in Santorini and trying to go with all the hordes elsewhere.
They still get the sort of iconic experience.
Exactly. Yeah. And then you obviously then mix it with a Royal Beach Club. It really gives you a day where you have three components. One of the components is the beach club where you can chill, relax, have lunch or brunch or you know just take it easy for a little bit. And then of course there are two destinations that are really important which is Fira and Oia. And if you know they will be part of that package. So that's why we've called it the Ultimate Santorini Day. So you get all three and the flow will be better.
So the flow will be better so tourism. I think some people are worried then that you know Royal's coming in there with big ships but you're then managing those people.
Okay. All right. It's very exciting. And then I have not been to a beach club before but I have been to Perfect Day. So for people or agents who are watching this because this is all part of your land development. Can you explain the difference then between a Royal Beach Club and Perfect Day? We've also got Mexico coming haven't we? So we've got and you've got Cozumel. So you've got all these and Lelepa in the South Pacific. Yeah. So, can you just explain the difference for agents that want to understand your land-based offering?
I will. First of all, I've never been to a beach club either as we've just because we're just developing them. So, I mean I've been to our development of the Royal Beach Club. The difference is Perfect Day is a total destination experience. Our ships arrive, they dock at Perfect Day. You walk off the ship, you are in Perfect Day. Perfect Day is a multi-sensory experience. It is really this combination of thrill and chill. It is custom-designed to deliver a phenomenal perfect day in the Caribbean. And all based upon research from our customers and our key market of course is family. So hopefully you've been to Perfect Day.
It is just an epic experience. The kids are as happy as happy can be and the adults have a phenomenal experience. They can chill or thrill, whatever they want to do. So, it's a total experience for everybody and the vast majority of that is complimentary. It's part of the experience.
With the beach club, the beach club is more of an it's almost like an excursion. You arrive into a port such as Nassau and you have an option to do whatever you want to do. One of the options that we present you is the Royal Beach Club. Okay? And that allows you to fundamentally purchase a ticket to go on an excursion to the Royal Beach Club. Okay? But you could equally go and do whatever you want to do. We're pretty convinced that most people will want to go to the Royal Beach Club. And of course, we've custom-designed that experience to be the perfect day at the beach. And it is like all of our ships, we focus on neighborhood experiences so that people can go and kind of mix and mingle between experiences. So there's plenty of space and beach for families with kids. There's a phenomenal, in fact, there's the world's largest swim-up bar, which you can imagine what's going to happen there.
This is the world's largest swim-up bar with the most unbelievably gorgeous view. I mean, you're on Paradise Island. The beach is gorgeous. You're in the world's largest swim-up bar. As you look through the bar, you see this beautiful ocean, blue sky as you drink those piña coladas.
What's not to like? Sounds incredible. And but this is a big part of your strategy now, isn't it? You know, you've talked I think Jason's talked about 2 to 8 by 28. So, so more beach clubs, more Perfect Day. Can it go beyond that? There are other ideas in the sort of innovation lab beyond that of where you can take land because obviously within Silversea you've got a hotel now coming. So, where could you take that whole strategy?
I think you can take it where our customers want us to take it and I think you know we learned a lot with Perfect Day at CocoCay and it is our top rated destination. It's our number one demanded destination and it just delivers a phenomenal experience. I think we'll find the same thing with the Beach Club. Perfect Day Mexico is it's big. I think Magic Kingdom, the amount of acreage Magic Kingdom has is less than Perfect Day Mexico. So, it's going to be big. Okay. I mean, everything's going to be big, including the longest lazy crazy river in the world. I mean, that's going to be epic.
All right. So, but you're saying that so I think you could become because you're trying to be a vacation company now, not just a cruise company and that this is all part of it, like listening to customers and offering land-based to mix in with the ship experience.
Yeah, I think it's we've learned a lot through the delivery of cruise vacation experiences, design, innovation, creativity, delivery, guest satisfaction. And you know, I think a simple way of looking at it is we thought, well, we can do this, we do this really well. Why don't we apply everything that we've learned over the decades, everything we know about delivering these experiences, why don't we start applying it to key destination experiences? And I think we've kind of figured out that when we curate that experience in the right way, it is phenomenally successful. It's also incredibly helpful for the communities because it's really in many ways it's master planning. And I think when you look at some of the issues that people are concerned about with regards to over-tourism, much of that really is the consequence of not planning. You know, it's really about sitting down and looking into the future and trying to plan an experience so that can accommodate and deliver phenomenal experiences.
Although the converse of that is some people will say you're taking people into your own destinations and not into genuine communities. I'm sure they provide employment, don't they, for locals, but some people will say you're not giving them an authentic experience in those destinations.
Well, great comment. The Royal Beach Club in Nassau is the first private-public partnership pretty sure in the Caribbean. The people of the Bahamas have a 49% share of the Royal Beach Club and the Royal Beach Club in Nassau is entirely operated by Bahamians. It's entirely staffed by Bahamians. The entire supply chain is Bahamian companies. The entire construction was Bahamian companies. The value that's been brought to the community through the Royal Beach Club is pretty epic. Okay. And it is and the only investors that can invest in the Royal Beach Club in Nassau are Bahamians.
So will you follow that sort of model?
Not necessarily. I think what we're and if you look at Santorini for example, Santorini will be entirely operated and run by the local community. Santorini will become part of an integrated perspective on tourism in Santorini. We're talking to all of the leaders of business and in the community. So in many ways the kind of the criticism is kind of a little superficial. You know people don't dive deep into the relationships that Royal Caribbean has curated over the years and the amount of energy we put into being a valuable member of the community. So I think people will find and the same for example with Perfect Day in Mexico. One of our strongest sponsors of that project is the governor of the state of Quintana Roo. The governor is a fanatic on helping create this experience. Tourism in that region needs development and investment and we've stepped up and we're investing heavily into the development of Perfect Day Mexico. It will be an employer of around 3,000 local people.
It didn't exist before. You know, and all of the goods and services that are provided to that experience will be local Mexican businesses.
So, you know, it's just not that way. You know, it's kind of often it's convenient for people to throw these tags on, you know, corporations, big business. Oh, this is what they're doing. It's not right. I think you're actually projecting negativity really closely with these people. It's impossible to develop these projects if you don't have absolutely the full support of the community and the government.
Yeah. Okay. Good stuff. Hotels though, is that something you'd go into?
Who knows? Well, I mean, Silversea knows.
Yeah. Silversea, they're building a hotel.
But I'm thinking that would be a great at the moment. It's a day. It's a day trip experience each time with Royal and it could be a longer experience.
It's a great idea. I'm going to put it on the list. Thank you.
All right. Let me know when you come up with something on that. Let's move on then. We've also talked about ships because we've got Legend coming. First Icon class into Europe which we're very excited about. So, which you must be too. Is it selling well? How's it going?
It's an iconic product. I mean when Icon was introduced we couldn't believe the results that it generated. It is a massively popular product. The same with Star and now we're proud that Legend's coming into the European market. It is a game-changer in terms of the delivery of the experience. The net promoter score which you know we focus on a lot is consistently 90.
Is that the highest class? Is that the highest figure for a class?
Yeah, that's epic. If you can deliver a 90 net promoter score when you've got 7 and a half thousand guests sailing with you, that pretty much means you've knocked it out the park. People love the experience. The product is multi-dimensional, multi-sensory, and there's some new things coming on Legend. I mean, I know we always add, but you always add something. So, I think we've got Charlie and the Chocolate Factory show, which is going to be fantastic. Yeah. And we bring new restaurant experiences.
