Norwegian Cruise Line executives are bullish on what Australia and New Zealand can deliver for the line but are equally clear-eyed about what\u2019s standing between the current footprint and something bigger.<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking with Travel Weekly<\/em>, NCL\u2019s vice president and managing director APAC Ben Angell and chief sales & marketing officer International Jason Krimmel painted a picture of a market that has quietly become one of the line\u2019s most valuable \u2013 even without a large local deployment.<\/p>\n The Australian cruiser, according to Krimmel, has long punched above their weight for the brand, even before Norwegian Spirit<\/em> gave the line a genuinely local product this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Australian consumer has a premium price that they tend to be paying \u2013 they\u2019re booking further out, which is more valuable to us because it gives us more control over pricing for those that are close-in,\u201d Krimmel said. \u201cWe know that they stay longer, they spend more, and that translates into loyalty and repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n Angell said the arrival of Norwegian Spirit<\/em> had given the brand a new on-ramp into that market, appealing to \u201cthose cruisers that want a slightly smaller ship, more intimate feel, but still packed with great dining, great entertainment, and a multitude of bars\u201d \u2013 while fly-cruise remains the engine room of NCL\u2019s Australian business.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually pretty much coined that term fly-cruise,\u201d Angell said. \u201cAustralians are increasingly getting on the airplane to experience cruises in another part of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite recent local staff redundancies after a restructure initiated by the Miami HQ, the pair are confident in the ANZ market. Pushed on what it would take to bring NCL back to Australia in greater capacity, Angell pointed squarely at certainty when it came to cost, berth availability and government acknowledging the increasing importance of cruise to the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pricing and policy surety,\u201d he said. \u201cAs an industry, we\u2019re making decisions a long way out. You\u2019ve heard three to five years, and often five to 10 years, in terms of just creating those deployments globally.\u201d<\/p>\n Krimmel added that berthing availability compounds the problem, contrasting Australia with Miami\u2019s turnaround capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cYou might have 12 ships on one Saturday, but then there\u2019s nothing there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,\u201d he said, noting Australia doesn\u2019t yet have the infrastructure to support that scale of domestic deployment.<\/p>\n Both were adamant, though, that the constraints don\u2019t outweigh the opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you could actually counter-argue it the opposite way, which is it\u2019s too risky to not be committed to this region,\u201d Angell said. Krimmel agreed, pointing to Australia\u2019s cruise penetration rate as \u201cprobably second (per capita) only to the US\u201d, given the 1.5 million Australians predicted to cruise this year.<\/p>\n Even as other gateways enter the conversation Sydney remains the anchor for any growth.<\/p>\n \u201cSydney remains the marquee port for inbound fly-cruise, and that\u2019s the challenge,\u201d Krimmel noted, adding that Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland and Perth are all \u201cin the consideration set\u201d but harder to sell offshore given Sydney\u2019s brand recognition abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do need the airlift, you need that marquee port,\u201d Angell said. \u201cWill we ever be a Miami? No, we\u2019re not going to be a Miami. But is there opportunity for further growth down here? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n On product, Krimmel was clear NCL has no interest in chasing rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to be Royal Caribbean, we\u2019re not trying to be Celebrity\u2026 we\u2019re not trying to be Disney,\u201d he said, pointing to the Prima Plus class\u2019s \u201cthrill or chill\u201d positioning and its modular top-deck activities as evidence the brand has closed its main gaps.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re there. I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing now. I think we\u2019ve got the culinary down. I think we\u2019ve got the entertainment down,\u201d Krimmel said, adding wellness would get a further boost with Norwegian Aura\u2019s larger spa offering.<\/p>\n Locally, Spirit<\/em> has been deliberately positioned away from the busier, family-heavy comp set.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s calm over kids club \u2013 that\u2019s basically the positioning that we landed on,\u201d Angell said, \u201cbecause really the comp set down here offers a very different experience: larger ships, busier ships, lots of families.\u201d<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a single missing ingredient, it isn\u2019t product \u2013 it\u2019s supply \u2013 which is not just an NCL issue.<\/p>\n \u201cOur missing element is I need more ships now,\u201d Krimmel said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to wait until the 2040s or the 2030s. There\u2019s not enough supply for the demand that we have, quite frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n The line has flagged its \u201cclass of 2030\u201d newbuilds and confirmed early-stage talks with Fincantieri on tonnage for 2040 and beyond, while its existing ships \u2013 kept fresh through what Krimmel called \u201cthe most impressive refurb program in the industry\u201d \u2013 continue to work hard in secondary and tertiary premium markets.<\/p>\n Angell made no secret of his wishlist for the region.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d love to get a more modern ship down here at some point in the future. That would be an absolute goal,\u201d he said, floating something \u201cfrom Breakaway Plus forward\u201d as the class he\u2019d like to see.<\/p>\n Krimmel confirmed there\u2019s no shortage of local pressure to make that happen.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always are [getting those calls from Australia],\u201d he said. \u201cIf I had the ships, it would be an easy yes.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, Spirit<\/em> will remain.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s booked to come down again and again and again,\u201d Angell said and if she keeps performing, she may yet prove the local case for company back at HQ.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Norwegian Cruise Line executives are bullish on what Australia and New Zealand can deliver for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Premium, patient customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Deploying Down Under<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"NCL](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0427_17092026_CLIA360-scaled.jpg\"\/)
![\"NCL](\"https:\/\/travelweekly.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/0427_17092026_CLIA360-scaled.jpg\")
Product, not just ports<\/strong><\/h2>\n
More ships, please<\/strong><\/h2>\n