Johanna Jainchill
It seems like every meeting or discussion I've had with travel advisors in the last few months has included some discussion on the popularity of private islands to cruise clients.
And several advisors said the islands have changed the way cruise lines think about the new-to-cruise market.
At an Internova (No. 10 on Travel Weekly's Power List) media roundtable in early January, Pam Young, senior vice president of industry relations, went as far as to say that private island investment "is reshaping the Caribbean."
Her colleague Stephen McGillivray, Internova's chief partner marketing officer, said cruise lines are now able to sell newbies on weekends, which they hope will eventually lead to weeks.
An example, he said, was how much advertising Royal Caribbean International was buying for NFL Sunday games. (The spots actually have emblazoned across the screens during a high-energy song, "Looks like a weekend, sounds like a weekend, feels like a vacation.")
"That's crazy expensive media," he said. "And what are they selling? Weekends. Three-night cruises. It's their best product -- brand new product, their best ships -- and a private island stop. And the hope is you do that, you come back for the week in the Caribbean, then you're off to Alaska, to Europe and exotic. That bet, I think, is great for getting new cruisers."
Part of the reason advisors say the lines are emboldened to sell these short cruise experiences to newbies is that they now have more control over the product.
"When you talk about that private island experience, they're in control of it," Young said. "It's a strategic asset for them to be able to give the customer that experience they might not have had in a three-to-four-day before. It resonates really high with those consumers, and then you do get that repeat customer."
She wasn't the only one who mentioned the importance of controlling the experience. It's a phrase that comes up often when talking about private island appeal.
"You can use your drink package. They have the towels for you, the chairs are set up," said David Crooks, senior vice president of product and operations for World Travel Holdings (No. 16 on Travel Weekly's Power List), about why controlling the onshore experience is a huge part of the draw.
"And what they've even done is, if you're in The Haven on Norwegian, you have a special restaurant on the island. On MSC, if you're in the Yacht Club, you have your own beach club, your own restaurant, your own area. So they've taken the onboard experience and just plopped it on an island."
That control extends to what's not part of the experience on a private island, such as not knowing where to go or what to do.
"Which beach do I go to? How long is the cab ride? You have to leave at 2 o'clock -- I don't know if I'll get a cab, and I don't know where the driver is going to take me," Crooks said of cruisers' potential concerns.
Betting on newbies for cruises that don't advertise actual destinations in a region is antithetical to what cruisers have traditionally been sold on.
"The No. 1 factor in choosing what cruise you go on is destination," Crooks said, with the first thing clients considering is the itinerary. "If you're new to cruise, St. Thomas has more appeal to you than some obscure island."
What happens, he said, is that once they take the cruise, more often than not, "the satisfaction scores for these private islands are much higher than the other destination."
It's why cruise lines are expanding and building more places just for their passengers. It's also the reason a perceived delay in its private-island development was a big part of the criticism levied toward Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings by activist investors in recent weeks.
Private island popularity also comes with a cost to other Caribbean destinations, which say they lose out on revenue.
While some excursion companies and Bahamian workers benefit from private island guests, many don't, including local bars and restaurants.
This is mostly the case in the Bahamas, where the vast majority of the private islands are based and where the government has proposed new taxes aimed at the private destinations to make up for lost revenue.
And therein lies a dilemma. Given the levels of anti-cruise backlash in some places, private cruise stops would be embraced by communities that don't want thousands of people descending at once from cruise ships.
During a visit to Tortola over the holidays, friends of mine who have a home on the island timed their beach trips around avoiding "cruise ship people." They would love it if the British Virgin Islands had a designated cruise destination.
But the taxi drivers, bartenders and shops on the islands? I'm not sure what they would say about that.