Courting a younger luxury cruise client

How to bridge the generation gap in cruising was one of the hot topics at the Crystal Cruises Sales Achievement Awards Gala on a Crystal Serenity sailing between London and Lisbon.

The forum is a reward for the 90 or so agents who sold over a half-million dollars’ worth of Crystal Cruises vacations in 2013. But most of those sales were to people in their 60s and 70s.

“We want their kids,” said Mary Jean Tully, CEO of Cruise Professionals, Toronto.

Travelers in their 40s and 50s with the means to go on a luxury cruise are not choosing one for their vacation.

A big part of it is that they view cruising as something for their parents’ generation. “In their minds, it’s for old people,” said Tully, citing enrichment classes in knitting and memoir writing as examples. “‘We’ll save it until we’re older.’ That’s their attitude.”

Bridging the gap requires putting more emphasis on some of the concerns of guests in their middle years, especially wellness, Tully said. On the ship, that means yoga and fitness, she said. In excursions, it means more vigorous options. And the enrichment programs should have more focus on technology — things you can do with your iPad, iPhone and cloud computing, for example.

Crystal officials said some of what Tully raised is being addressed. The line recently expanded a series of bicycle tours in ports from a handful of options to 16 tours, including one through the wine country in Bordeaux and a city tour in bicycle-friendly Copenhagen.

Crystal also offers a course in video production and editing through its affiliation with the prestigious University of Southern California film school. Its Computer University @Sea offers 38 state-of-the-art computers and instruction in a variety of computer topics.

Tully said that part of the task is simply raising awareness by placing short, easy-to-digest ads or news items in publications such as GQ or Men’s Fitness that would direct younger potential guests to marketing materials.

“The things you’re doing are great, they’re fantastic,” Tully told the marketing team at Crystal. The challenge, she said, is to find a way to get the 40- and 50-year-old cruisers to see that Crystal isn’t their father’s cruise line.