Skift Take
While many North American cruise lines have been ramping up their presence around the globe, Carnival has kept most of its focus on the U.S. That appears to be paying off for the brand.
Christine Duffy was just a couple weeks into her new job as president of Carnival Cruise Line last year, surrounded by members of the military and a country music star in Texas, when she had a realization: This cruise line was all about America.
It didn't hurt that she was on a ship named Freedom, outfitted like all Carnival ships in red, white, and blue.
"That’s when it really crystallized that we are America’s cruise line," said Duffy, who stepped into her role in February 2015 and spent the next year visiting every ship in the fleet of the world's largest cruise line.
Before joining Carnival, Duffy was president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association. She was in that position when fire disabled the Carnival Triumph in early 2013, leading to days of intense media coverage as the ship was towed to land. On occasion, she even commented on the incident's implications for the broader cruise industry.
The cruise line invested hundreds of millions of dollars in fire safety and reliability upgrades; instituted a new money-back guarantee for travelers who were unsatisfied within the first day of a cruise; worked to repair relationships with travel agents and poured money into advertising campaigns. Within a year, the efforts were paying off, and the former CEO retired on Nov. 30, 2014. Duffy was named to the post a couple weeks later.
These days, Duffy said, the conversation is about momentum and not recovery.
Carnival is continuing popular programs including the concert-and-comedy series Carnival Live, which lets passengers watch performances for an extra fee, and the Seuss at Sea children's program. Earlier this year, the operator announced a partnership with Carrie Underwood, which will include a concert for military families on a ship and a fundraising component for Operation Homefront. Underwood will also be part of the concert lineup for 2017.
And on Sunday, the cruise line launched its newest and biggest ever ship, Carnival Vista, in Europe.
Duffy spoke to Skift earlier this spring about the new ship, empowering employees to surprise passengers, what she learned over the last year, and why she believes Carnival is America's cruise line.
Skift: What were your main goals for your first year in this position?
Duffy: Well, first thing I said was 'First do no harm.' Because I think the brand and the team that was here had done a great job setting us up for success. And the other thing that I said was I wanted t
