WTM 2014: Louis Cruises Plots UK Expansion with Partial Rebrand

The sales director of Louis Cruises has revealed ambitious targets for the UK market, hoping to reach 15,000 passengers by 2018.

Speaking to TTG at WTM, Pythagoras Nagos said the company had redefined its product offering, and was now keen to aggressively target the UK market, which he said was currently “extremely low”.

Around 35% of the company’s customers are North American, while South America comprises around 22% and Australia 10%. However just 2,000 passengers cruised with the line in 2014.

Nagos conceded that reaching 15,000 UK passengers within four years was an ambitious goal, however he said with the UK as the second largest cruising market, it should be achievable.

“If we don’t, it will be due to lack of airlift,” he warned. “We’re already working with Aegean Airlines to increase airlift capacity, but we need to boost airlift in general in order to achieve our aim.”

Nagos said the company had spent the last two years evaluating the product, and was now implementing a number of changes in order to make it more appealing to international markets.

“At the beginning of 2012 we started asking ourselves where we were standing in the market in the market with product,” he said. We didn’t have a clear focus or a clear identity – we were trying to serve a lot of different nations with a product that wasn’t clearly defined, or what the core of our business was. We asked ourselves, why should someone buy a Louis Cruise?”

The answer, Nagos explained, was to experience to a Greek experience - in destinations, food and entertainment. He said the line had now made the shore excursions “more Greek”, with increased “off the beaten path tours”.

“We’ve also introduced new recipes from different destinations in Greece and we’re holding themed events on board, with Greek cooking lessons, and Greek dancers.”

As part of this renewed focus on the product, Nagos said the line was rebranding two of its ships as Celestyal Cruises – a name which he said summed up the line’s offering.

“We believe the word ‘celestial’ reflects the heavenly experience we can offer, and we spelt it slightly differently to show that we’re also different to other cruise lines”.

Meanwhile Nagos said he was keen to target attracting repeat customers, admitting that the current repeat factor was “very low”, between 5-8%. To achieve this aim, he said the line was introducing new destinations for the ships to call at, to give customers a reason to return.

“We’re going to be calling at islands that have poor infrastructure, which are not designed for huge vessels – we’re going to go where other cruise lines don’t.

“Greece is coming back again as a holiday destination, and cruising is the best possible way to discover Greece. If you have a limited time, you want to see as many destinations as possible – we are offering that,” he added.

Source: TTG Digital