Caribbean destinations and cruise lines must "refresh and reinvent" their tourism product if they hope for the region to weather growing competition from the Asian cruise market following a two percent loss in global cruise industry market share last year, according to a panel of cruise line executives.

Speaking on a panel for the future of the Caribbean cruise industry at the Cruise Shipping Miami conference yesterday, Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) President Michele Paige stated that, while the Caribbean still enjoys an "overwhelming share" of the global cruise industry's deployment, it cannot rest on its laurels in 2015 and beyond and must fight to increase its market share instead of merely maintaining it.

"We're not forgetting about global competition. We know that China is growing exponentially; we know that the Mediterranean is predicting a record year; we know that the Caribbean's market share has shrunk to 36 percent, down two percent from last year and that Asia has gained that two percent.

"The Caribbean's ability to stimulate the required demand will be directly dependent upon its capacity to refresh and reinvent its tourism economies to reflect a global environment," said Paige at the Cruise Shipping Miami conference, one of the largest annual cruise industry tradeshows.

Paige said that the FCCA was undergoing a self-evaluation to identify the weaknesses of the region's tourism product, which is expected to bring in more than 20 million passenger arrivals and more than $2 billion in passenger and cruise spending for the year. However she stressed that cruise lines alone did not create demand, but rather followed where their passengers wanted to go.

"It's very important that destinations drive this demand and that they echo similar business practices as the cruise lines," said Paige.

Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley said that he was optimistic of the economic growth in North America and did not anticipate the bulk of the cruise industry moving away from the Caribbean. However, he stated that Caribbean destinations and cruise lines needed to take advantage of the U.S.' rebound by offering more differentiation in what they offered different customer groups, particularly through segmenting their offerings for shore excursions.

"If you think about what the islands in the Caribbean offer you could debate that there's not a high degree of differentiation between these different destinations. In the cruise industry itself there's been a huge investment in innovation and differentiation. Really a lot of hard work has gone into the brands and these brands have meaning in the marketplace.

"The question is does the Caribbean have the right kind of brand relevance, not only as a geographical region, but individually. What is the point of differentiation, what is the target market, and how does it compete within the global landscape?" he said.

With a population of nearly 1.4 billion and a growing distribution of wealth, China had become one of the top three cruise destinations in the past five years and a top competitor for the Caribbean. Despite the threat, Bayley was confident that the Caribbean had enough time to adapt to the increased pressure from the Asian market.

"The Caribbean's in a great place and I don't think that's going to rapidly change, but it's certainly true that as the industry grows that growth is coming from [elsewhere]. With China it's extraordinary in terms of the growth that we're seeing," said Bayley.

Norwegian Cruise Line President and Chief Operating Officer Andy Stuart and Christine Duffy, President of Carnival Cruise Line, similarly noted that there was a strong need for differentiation between Caribbean destinations. Despite projecting decent growth in the region for 2015, Stuart stressed that cruise lines and respective tourism ministries needed to do a better job in selling the region.

President and CEO of MSC Cruises (USA) Richard Sasso also addressed concerns that the rapid growth in the Asian cruise market could lure vessels away from their traditional Caribbean routes, stating that the largest cruise lines and industry stakeholders needed to work together in diversifying their product.

"The supply will come but if we can't make any money then we'll send them somewhere else," said Sasso, adding that penetration levels for cruise lines were still low even in the most developed markets.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian