Priyanka Saxena Ray
Which destinations and cruise experiences are currently in high demand from the Indian market?
While cruises closer to home – like those from Singapore – continue to be popular, there’s a growing demand for expedition cruises to unique destinations such as Antarctica, the Arctic, and the Galapagos. Northern Europe has also seen strong interest over the past year, with itineraries covering the Baltic, Iceland, and the Norwegian Fjords performing particularly well.
What are your expectations for the upcoming season?
We have about 1% of the Indian outbound market cruising, so the potential is huge. We need more deployments closer to home and more cruise lines sailing from India to further tap into this potential. The good news is that destinations close to home are becoming more cruise-friendly, such as Dubai, Malaysia (in addition to Singapore), China (with visa-free cruises to Japan), and our homegrown ports are showing great interest too in tapping into this potential!
We have Celebrity Millennium starting from Mumbai and sailing to Singapore in the winter of 2025-26.
And then we launch two new ships this year, with Star of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s (again the world’s largest ship, an Icon Class), debuting in August 2025, and Celebrity Xcel, promising to take modern luxury to even greater heights, debuting in November 2025.
Are there any new itineraries, onboard experiences, or India-specific strategies your brand is introducing to better engage Indian travellers?
Indians are becoming more globalised – we are opening our palettes, literally and figuratively! Having said that, one special ‘Glo-cal’ experience curated on Ovation of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, on 27 October 2025, sailing for 3 nights from Singapore and coinciding with our Diwali holidays, will feature Indian musician duo Hari and Sukhamani performing onboard for our cruisers. This will be paired with an Indian street food party and, not to be missed, a Garba night onboard. We are also seeing great interest in our Antarctica expedition cruises on Silversea, both with the Fly Cruise option and the Drake Passage.
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