In The Big Chair - Tom Wolber of Crystal Cruises

Tom Wolber, CEO

Founded in 1989, Crystal Cruises is a luxury line that has been owned by Genting Hong Kong since 2015. Its current fleet includes two ocean ships, five river ships and one yacht, with three new vessels in the works. According to Phocuswright, the cruise sector grew 5% in 2017 to surpass $17 billion.

Tom Wolber became president and CEO of Crystal Cruises in September 2017, following a three-decade career with Walt Disney Company, including 10 years with Disney Cruise Line where he was senior vice president of operations.

The distribution landscape is different for cruises than for other sectors of travel. According to Phocuswright, traditional agents account for 66% of cruise bookings, and that number is expected to inch up to 67% by 2021. What elements would need to be improved online for a consumer to feel as satisfied with booking via the web as they would via an agent?

It’s a very, very hard question to answer in the large context because it is one statistic that you are going off. Even within the travel industry outside cruising the numbers vary greatly. For simple transactions - hotel booking or airline booking - the direct booking numbers are through the roof. But the more complex the booking gets, the more that number drops because people will always look for assurances and help in navigating through a purchase decision.

That is not necessarily because they couldn’t do it online, it’s because they want the reassurance, and they want to have a complete package put together for them.

And cruise is one of those products that is relatively complex. It is for most Americans an international transaction or international trip they are booking. Those typically require more agent help, so the online numbers for international [travel] go down anyway.

I think that as we continue to make our web better accessible, our online booking experiences easier and more convenient, we will continue to see an uptick to that online booking number. But the agents’ role will never disappear and will always be there in the cruise industry.

It’s interesting - we just did a market study that revealed the fact that the younger consumers, the consumers between 35 to 55, are actually more prone to use an agent than the older consumers. So it is not just a technology issue, it is also an issue of having time available, convenience and assurance and that is just where an agent comes into play and provides that. It’s that human interaction, that human element that people are still looking for.

Do you think chatbots will play a role - given that voice and interaction is such an important part of the cruise planning process?

It’s a tool, and it’s a tool that - as it improves - will start to play a role. But again it is a tool. That is one of the most important things to stress for me and for us: Technology is not a driver in and of itself.

No one is ever going to book a cruise because the technology is so fantastic. Technology is going to enable the experience and enable the transaction in ways that consumers want.

Chatbots are just one of many evolutions in that ongoing quest of making things easier, more accessible. It’s a tool in the toolbox. We will embrace that once it gets to a point that it is useful.

What role does technology play in the cruise experience?

Cruising by and large is a leisure-based activity. It’s not a business activity. So where hotel chains and other travel providers are playing a dominant role in the business travel realm, technology there has a different role than in the leisure side of the business.

When you think about Crystal and about cruising, the technology divides in a number of categories: You have service-enabling technology like the profiles you have, the information you have on guests and how you make that available to the people onboard that are actually interacting with the guests. [You have] technology back of the house to streamline things, make it more efficient, eliminate lines. Those are all very important in enabling an experience that is seamless and of high value to the guest.

The other part of technology that is really important in the cruise business is communication and enabling people to stay in contact with their homes. The technology started many years ago when we started having Wi-Fi on our ships. And with every evolution, with every time we improve our delivery of Wi-Fi, the market has already caught up with us with the demand of streaming more and faster data because people share more and more and larger and larger files.

So keeping up with the latest technology when it comes to Wi-Fi and internet access for our guests is a key important factor for the experience and something we invest quite a bit in like every other cruise line.

Then it’s truly all the entertainment technologies on a ship. I think when it comes to technology as an enabler of a great onboard experience or a great leisure vacation experience, the cruise industry as a whole is probably on the cutting-edge of technology development.

Crystal is recognized as a leading cruise operator and has a loyal customer base, some that have been cruising with you since the brand launched 29 years ago. But how do you attract new customers to cruising?

The way we attract new customers to our brand is making sure that we talk to people in a way so that they recognize themselves in the brand experience we offer and make them want to travel in the embrace of Crystal.

It is about getting the brand proposition of Crystal across to consumers that haven’t cruised with Crystal yet. I think some of the new products we have launched - like the river cruising, the expedition cruising soon to come, the yacht cruising with Crystal Esprit - those are products that are very attractive to a somewhat younger clientele or different clientele than what we’ve traditionally seen on our ocean ships.

And that plays out - about 50% of the people that go on these experiences are new to Crystal. Then we hope to bring them onto the ocean-going experiences as well.

There’s a number of ways to attract new customers or new guests to the Crystal brand. And again technology is an enabler of that. Making sure people can connect when they are onboard and stay in touch is crucially important. But we’re not going to be leading with, “Come book a Crystal cruise because of our internet access.” It’s kind of a given these days.

When we talk about future growth in the travel industry, all eyes turn to China. It has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and its travel market is projected to grow 9 to 11% annually for the next several years. What are your plans for the Asian market in the coming years?

We are owned by an Asian company - Genting Hong Kong - and we have an office in Hong Kong that is exploring that market. We’ve been fortunate that since the beginning we have been very present in the Asian market because the previous owners were Japanese. So we’ve always had a core base of Asian customers on our ships. That continues to be strongly present.

We are, with the new products - the river cruising and the expedition cruising - going to be focusing on that market. We already have product available on our ships that is very attractive to the Asian travelers. Our menu options, our restaurant options - we have choices to make Asians travelers feel more at home.

On our ocean-going vessels we have Asian hosts and hostesses that can help them with language issues. We are prepared for that. We continue to look at ways as to how we can evolve that.

You have a new expedition yacht, the Crystal Endeavour, in production for delivery in 2020, with another one planned for 2021 and the first Diamond Class ocean ship slated for 2022. Can you tell us how are you are incorporating the latest technology into these new products?

I cannot do that yet, because we are in the midst of developing that and I don’t want to tip my hat in a field that evolves rapidly. But there are going to be again enabling technologies on the ships that will bring that guest experience to a whole new level.

I think as a leader you need to be endlessly curious. You need to be always asking why and how.

Tom Wolber - Crystal Cruises

Share this quote

It’s all about eliminating pain and pressure points for the guest, and technology is changing so rapidly that we know what we want to do, but we will continue to validate that almost until the moment that we deliver the ships so we can be ready with whatever the best technology available at the time is to deliver what we want to deliver.

Excursions are an important element of the cruise experience. How does your company work with local operators, and do you think this will change as third-party sites such as GetYourGuide, Viator, Expedia et al gain a higher profile for tours and activities?

It’s one of the reasons why people use agents so much still in the cruise industry, because of the complexity of the product. People like to book their excursions well ahead of their voyage so they can be assured that they can have the experience that they want to have when they are visiting a port. We do work with local operators in all the markets, and we carefully design experiences that are unique for our guests that they can’t just purchase anywhere off the shelf.

There is another element to it that is different than the providers like Expedia can play, and that is the all-inclusive piece of the business. For our river ships and our yacht, the shore excursions are included in the up-front pricing, so people just have to select what they want to experience so that kind of eliminates that piece of the market for local competition.

The main reason that people work through tour operators that are vetted through us and work with us in building these products is that they know it has the Crystal stamp, so there is the security and the safety aspect of the tours that are being vetted that you don’t know if you go on your own and purchase.

Lastly when you are on a Crystal-sold excursion, the ship will wait for you if there is a delay in your bus or whatever, because they know there is a Crystal excursion group coming back to the ship. If you do this outside of the cruise line, that guarantee doesn’t exit. We have no visibility of what you are doing and where you are doing it.

In September it will be one year since you became president and CEO of Crystal Cruises. What’s been your biggest challenge in year one?

I don’t know if it’s a challenge or just an opportunity to embrace and work with, but Crystal, when I got here, was in the midst of a massive expansion phase that necessitated a lot of back-of-the-house improvements, technology improvements.

So while you are bringing out new product in the market, and you are changing your back-of-the-house systems and some of the office setups and procedures around it, you just have an awful lot of swirl going on.

Getting that settled and getting that calmed down and at a pace that is predictable and inspires confidence has been the major part of the work this year, and I think that is succeeding.

What is in the works for Crystal Cruises in the next three to five years?

We’ll continue to fine-tune the existing products – the river product, the yacht product and of course the ocean product. But we are now turning our eyes back on the ocean, and we’ll be preparing for the delivery of the expedition vessel - the Crystal Endeavour - and then we’re going to be in the midst of planning the itinerary of the second Endeavor, and then the planning and design for the new ocean-going ships.

Those are future-going strings of work that are out there for Crystal. On top of that is just growing the customer base and preparing the market for the arrival of all these new products.

Prior to joining Crystal, you had been with Disney for nearly 30 years, 10 of those with the Disney Cruise Line. What is it about the cruise industry that appeals to you?

I think it’s an absolutely unique industry. No matter how big it gets, it’s a very small industry. Everyone knows each other. It’s an industry that is very international and dynamic in nature, and that appeals to me because I really don’t like to get bored.

I think from a product point of view, the opportunity that the cruise industry gives to establish a relationship with a guest and make that a relationship that endures over years and years and turns that guest into a repeat guest is unique.

The embrace of the experience in the cruise industry is deeper and more profound than in any other industry that I’ve seen. You have your people onboard with you on an entire voyage from start to finish.

Yes they go off and do shore excursions and shore products and window shopping, you name it, but the amount of time we spend with our guests compared to the amount of time that someone in a typical hotel spends with the hotel staff or even less in a theme park - that experience translates in great opportunities to build memories, to build relationships that endure over time. And I think that is very appealing.

How do you motivate your team?

Probably not enough. But the way I try to motivate the team is letting people know that they are appreciated and that their role is important in the overall Crystal experience.

To that point, I think it is very important to create a culture where everyone feels part of one Crystal family, one company that has a certain feel, that stands for certain values. That we’re not just having one product and a product delivery for our guest that is completely separate from how it feels to work within the brand.

What we deliver to our guests, our staff and our crew members should feel when they are here as well. Again it is allowing people to do their jobs, it’s about appreciating people and it is about communicating with people.

Faced with two equally qualified people for a senior role, how do you select the one to hire?

If they are equally qualified, it means they have similar experiences, similar technical profiles that enable them to do the job. Then it really comes back to the read you get from a person when you talk with them about the role and how they would fit into the company culture that we have.

People can be completely equal in qualifications, but one person may be better suited for the insurance industry and another to the hospitality industry. It’s really about which of the two persons fits better into our Crystal culture.

What are one or two characteristics that you believe every leader should possess?

I think as a leader, you need to be endlessly curious. You need to be always asking why and how. I think a natural curiosity is a great, great asset in a leader.

The second one would be the ability to make a decision and be comfortable with the fact that every decision has a certain risk that comes with it. You can be right, you can be wrong, but 90% of decisions can be later adjusted or changed. So being able to make a decision is another trait that is very important for a leader.