Skift Take
As Carnival goes, so does the rest of the cruise industry. Under Donald, Carnival has been going quickly into China, Cuba, and experiential travel in a way that others will likely be soon to follow.
Turning around a giant object isn't easy, whether it's a ship that holds 4,000 people or a one of the largest travel companies by market cap and the home of 10 brands.
But that's precisely what Arnold Donald was tasked with doing when he took over as CEO of Carnival Corp. in July 2013. The turnaround wasn't purely financial (although the stock has improved under Donald), the job was to deal with months of terrible publicity and poor communication by the cruise line during crises that included the infamous "poop cruise" as well as the fatal Costa Concordia sinking in Italy.
Carnival's most visible shift under Donald can be seen in its focus on getting cruisers to be the brands' best advocates, from asking them to help create advertising campaigns to creating onboard Internet plans that let them share their trips on social networks while still at sea. It has changed how it communicates with the public, too, as was seen most recently when it went proactive on Twitter and Facebook after an onboard fire.
Behind the scenes Carnival is trying to be more nimble than most massive companies. It has been a first-mover in Cuba and is both adding ships in China and working on a line targeted at Chinese cruisers. And it's still building. "One of the things we're excited about is we're going to have as many as five new ships in 2016," Donald told Skift earlier this month. "We're very excited to add those ships to our fleet. Beyond 2016 we've already announced we have a major new platform will be the largest ship in terms of number of guests. 6,600 guests at the maximum on the ship."
Continue reading below for Skift's full conversation with Donald.
Skift: You were on the Carnival board for over a decade. Even though, I think people would still consider you outside of the travel industry, what was the most eye-opening thing for you when you moved into the CEO role at Carnival?
Arnold Donald: The board is governance and the business is operations. The first thing I saw — which I had a glimpse of as a board member, but I wasn't living it every day — was the incredible passion and commitment of our employees. Just the human spirit is sky-high amongst the employees. To be around that everyday is truly uplifting and inspiring and motivating. Every day is a good day. That was something I had a little feel for, but I couldn't even imagine what it was like every day.
Skift: Outside of the realities of the team and seeing the dedication there, in
