President of Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Group
Celebrity Cruises sees ‘a ton of support’ from UK agents
We caught up with Celebrity Cruises president Laura Hodges Bethge on a recent trip to London, who hailed the support of UK ...
About Laura Bethge
Laura Hodges Bethge, president of Celebrity Cruises, has emphasized the company's focus on innovation across both its ocean and river cruise products. In May 2025, she stated that the top decks of river ships are "ripe for innovation" and that guests should expect the "same level of innovation on the river as on the ocean." She also discussed the brand's investment in "next generation connectivity and more immersive destination experiences," which she said aim to blur the line between ship and shore. Bethge noted that the company signed for a sixth Edge-class ship, Excel 2, after a slot became available, and that it carries over seven new places and spaces from the previous ship. She described the brand campaign "Nothing Comes Close" as being inspired by feedback from agents and crew. Bethge has also highlighted the importance of the UK market, calling it "fundamentally our core market" and "our absolutely number one largest international market." She said the company is receiving "a ton of support" from UK travel agents and that Celebrity Apex in Southampton is "doing exceptionally well." She noted that the company is "dreaming about what comes next" as its Millennium class ships approach 30 years old and that it is planning to modernize its Solstice class ships during dry docks. Bethge also discussed the company's sustainability efforts, stating that Celebrity is "on the path to Net Zero" and that a new ship will be equipped with a tri-fuel engine capable of burning green methanol, though she noted the supply of that fuel is not yet sufficient for the entire fleet.
Transcript (35 segments)
H
Host0:00
Well hello again everyone and welcome to our latest webcast that we're bringing you from Travel Weekly. I'm in London. I'm with Laura Hodes Bethge, who is of course the president of Celebrity Cruises. Laura, you're back with us again.
L
Laura Bethge0:12
Yes, I love being in the UK. It's a pleasure to be here.
H
Host0:14
I think we were last together in May. You were at the CLIA conference and you spoke on stage, which was fantastic. So tell us why you're back, why you're here.
L
Laura Bethge0:21
Well, visiting travel partners. This is a really important market for Celebrity Cruises and I make a commitment to make sure that I connect with our travel partners multiple times a year, and that's why I'm here. And then I get to spend time with you.
H
Host0:33
Thank you very much for taking the time. So tell us what you've been doing on this particular trip. You've seen travel partners, what's been your sort of message or what have you been trying to get from them?
L
Laura Bethge0:41
Well, I've been in doing this for about the last year and a half now with Celebrity, so I haven't gotten to meet everyone yet. So I did two kind of deep immersions with two of our biggest travel partners yesterday, which was fantastic, so learned a lot more about their business and how we can better partner together. And then we hosted a wonderful dinner for about 20 of our top trade partners, so again just really nice to mix, mingle and just get to know each other better.
H
Host1:05
Okay, and what were you talking about? I know you're not going to tell us commercials, I get that. But were they interested in product? What were they sort of wanting to know from you and where Celebrity's going?
L
Laura Bethge1:14
Kind of talking about our vision for the future. We spent a lot of time talking about the differentiated products and experiences that we're going to be bringing out, some of the reasons why we're making some changes to the fifth Edge class series that's coming out next fall, and then our dreaming about what comes next and how we do that and the process of doing that. And they also shared with me just a lot more about their business, what's working, what's not working, how their business has changed, and then how that has impacted our business to the positive or the negative, and then how we can either overcome that or continue to grow it in a positive direction. So every time that I sit down with our travel partners, because the business is consistently changing, we need to be flexible as partners to make sure that we have the right schemes in place, the right incentives in place, to push the products that are working for them and to work in the right way. So we're not a one-size-fits-all. We need to figure out the nuances of this person's business.
H
Host2:19
And when you say their business has changed, are you talking about sort of their models, or is it that you're talking to different agents now? Is it all retail or some homeworkers or some online? Are they all cruise specialists or are they coming into cruise? What?
L
Laura Bethge2:31
Yeah, there's some that have gone to more packaging and weren't doing packaging before, and that changes the way we work together. There's a lot more homeworkers now, so that changes the way that we engage, that we train. There's a lot of new apprentices coming on, so that was one of the things. New people into the industry who need to start from scratch. So how do we get our folks out there more to train them faster, get them on our ships as well? Because one of the things that makes a massive difference is that when they sail or they visit the ship, you see sales immediately start to go up from that as well. So just different touchpoints, because either people have left the business or new ones are coming in, so it's constantly evolving and we just need to make sure that we stay connected.
H
Host3:15
Brilliant. All right, and then you say the UK is such an important market for you. Are we second behind North America? Are we still in that sweet spot?
L
Laura Bethge3:23
Yeah, still in the sweet spot. Celebrity Apex, obviously first time having Edge series here in Southampton, doing exceptionally well. So just really thrilled with the support that we're getting, and then as well just our overall European itineraries and deployment, again getting a ton of support from the travel agent community here.
H
Host3:44
And of course you promised us Apex as well next year, so we're very excited about that. So when you say getting a ton of support, is it predominantly sold just for British guests out of Southampton or globally?
L
Laura Bethge3:55
Everybody's doing well with that product. So there's North American cruise market is very strong, and so we are seeing support for Apex from North America as well. But it's right in your backyard, so we're seeing a lot of support.
H
Host4:11
Brilliant. And I think Giles actually, we did an interview with him and he was saying she was like the, you know, in terms of yield, she was one of the best-selling ships in the fleet. So why do you think that's been such a success?
L
Laura Bethge4:22
Well, our Edge class ships in general, they're newer. So it's an industry standard that your newer ships garner the most attention, so obviously they're driving the most demand. So it's important to book early to get the staterooms that you want. So I think it's solely because they're newer. And then you think about our entire Celebrity fleet. I'm constantly being asked, can you put a ship out of here? Can you give me one more ship here? I need more ships.
H
Host4:55
We want another ship. We love Apex, but we were hoping maybe we'd get a second ship out of the UK. Is that on the cards?
L
Laura Bethge5:00
Well, it's actually something that we consider every single time. And part of the reason why I need a bigger fleet, so we're dreaming about the ships that come next so that we can grow Celebrity Cruises, so we can have more ships to put.
H
Host5:16
Okay, well let's come back to talk about some new ships and product. But I think some of the things you've just announced, your 2526 program, you're saying it's the most ambitious ever. It just seems to be going to everywhere in the world. Not quite, but it does seem to be bringing back new destinations, launching new ones as well. So tell us what you're most excited about in terms of the itineraries that you've got coming up.
L
Laura Bethge5:39
One of the things that we've been doing, listening to our travel agent partners but also our most loyal guests, and they want really interesting itineraries. So what we're doing is trying to do a lot more open jaw so that you can do back-to-backs or back-to-back-to-backs and not repeat ports. So we're really excited about that. We will be launching our 26-27 deployment this fall. And one of the things that we're working on is we definitely have 50 plus nights, but I've pushed the team to do 75 plus nights. I don't know if we're going to be able to get there, but we're trying. And again back-to-back-to-back-to-backs and not repeating a port, because we get lots of our most loyal guests who want to stay on for months at a time and see the world. And this would start in Alaska, go through Hawaii, if everything is going okay in the Suez at that point, go to the Suez, do really interesting itineraries, and end up.
H
Host6:28
And is that popular with the British market as well, those longer sailings?
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Laura Bethge6:30
Absolutely, absolutely. And then I'm really excited about we have our President's Cruise next May, so we're doing May 17th on Apex going to the Norwegian fjords for the first time. So I'm really hoping a lot of our British guests will join us, our most loyal.
H
Host6:47
And why did you pick Norwegian fjords? Is that just a particular favorite destination of yours?
L
Laura Bethge6:50
I've never been, so I'm excited to experience something new with our most loyal guests. And we try to mix it up. We were in the Caribbean this year, which was a fantastic time, but a lot of our most loyal guests from the area we're in, you see that you get all those who are coming in. So it's nice to be in different parts of the world so you might attract different loyal guests.
H
Host7:11
Okay, and I find it really interesting because you talked about how important these President's Cruises were because you said that you get these fantastic ideas on board from the guests because you obviously spend loads of time. I saw what you do, you literally do everything, you're comparing, you're doing entertainment, you seem to be doing everything. But what is it that you can then implement? Give us any examples of when someone said, oh could you do more of this, or could we have that? What have you implemented?
L
Laura Bethge7:40
Yeah, I think it's even. I love getting the feedback, but it's less the feedback that surprises me and more really watching what works of what we're doing, what's really well attended, and then what's maybe a little bit more quiet. Our Celebrity cruisers are joyers, they join everything with gusto, either in it or watching it, which is fantastic. But there are obviously some things that are more well attended, and so really watching our guests and how they interact with each other, our crew members, really helps spur maybe on a future class of ships we don't necessarily need to do it this way anymore, because desires have changed. And so it's by the act of watching, and then it's also our way to say thank you for being so loyal to us. So I know they call it a President's cruise, but I don't know why they call it a President's cruise because probably because you do every job when you're on board. By all accounts, so much fun, I'm exhausted by the end, have so much fun. But it really is about our most loyal, it's their cruise to say thank you. But you do pick up some really interesting points that then go into future planning.
H
Host8:50
All right, and just before we move on from itineraries, you've also introduced a few more shorter sailings as well. So why have you done that?
L
Laura Bethge8:59
Again, guests are asking for shorter getaways. And if you look at the consumer trends, people are not taking their longer vacation but then they're also taking these quick breaks. So there was a desire for us to do that, and it's been going exceptionally well, so I'm really glad we made that change.
H
Host9:15
And is that even popular with the UK? Do they then combine it with other things? They'll come down and then either do a back-to-back or do seven nights but also extend their vacation?
L
Laura Bethge9:27
Yeah.
H
Host9:28
And one of the things you introduced in your first year, it's only been a year and a bit, you introduced calling it Perfect Day for Celebrity guests, and we talked about that a little bit on stage because I was wondering how that had gone down. Are our Celebrity customers happy to be sharing a private island with your sister company, or do they really want their own private island? How's that been going?
L
Laura Bethge9:48
It's been going fantastic. It's actually become our number one rated destination by Celebrity guests. So fantastic. And what I would say is overall our Celebrity guests are absolutely loving it. And it was a great thing for us to do to learn about what are the preferences. So we're very interested in making sure that we're providing a great destination experience wherever we are all over the world, and the Caribbean is right for us to continue to develop and work with the Caribbean nations to develop great opportunities for shore excursions and things like that. So it was a really great. We had the asset there, sometimes Royal wasn't there with two ships so we could pull alongside. And it's really helped me understand again more about our guest.
H
Host10:33
So would you continue to always do shared private islands with your sister companies, or would you ever have a bespoke Celebrity one?
L
Laura Bethge10:42
Well, why wouldn't we share? When we look at Royal Caribbean International has announced that they're building a Royal Beach Club in Paradise Island in Nassau, there's also going to be others, and so we will be able to utilize space there too. We take advantage of that. Is there one that Celebrity would benefit from having its own private destination maybe in the future? Right now we're taking advantage of what we have. Is that something you're dreaming about? I dream about lots of things.
H
Host11:15
Fair enough. All right, and then just before we move on to itineraries, because we talked to Giles recently about airlift. It has been an issue, very expensive or just not enough of it. And he said that you were working very hard on trying to secure either allocations or full charters to really support the UK market. He said it's promising but they hadn't got it yet. I think we talked to him in April. So where are you now with that? And were you able to tell agents about that today?