Star Clippers’ Larry Haugh discusses his company’s positioning and new programs
Monaco-based Star Clippers, which operates three sailing ships, is shaking up its program with new itineraries. Vacation Agent got the scoop from Larry G. Haugh, vice president of sales for Star Clippers, who is based in the company’s Miami office.
Star Clippers has some interesting new itineraries planned for the upcoming year. Tell us about the new Costa Rica program by Star Flyer and what that means for the Tahiti cruises. Our owner decided that during these economic times, it would be a good idea to have all three ships in Europe for the summer. Half of our business comes from Europe, so we have a drive-up market. Our Tahiti program will end in February, and Star Flyer will do a pretty interesting repositioning sailing, going 34 nights from Papeete to Balboa, Panama. From there, it will move on to Europe in May. We cannot move the ship back to Tahiti for the fall, so we will move it to Costa Rica for the first time. We listen to what our passengers are saying and what they like. We’re always looking for new opportunities. We’ll visit 40 new ports of call this year, which is exciting to offer new passengers but also gives our past passengers the opportunity to sail into new wonderful ports. Over 55 percent of our passengers return. As we say to our agent friends, once you get passengers on Star Clippers, they’ll definitely come back, and they will tell their friends.
What’s on tap for the summer Mediterranean season? Once the Star Flyer comes back from Tahiti, it will operate Western Mediterranean cruises from Monaco or Cannes. During the summer, the Star Flyer also will do a series of sailings out of Rhodes along the Turquoise Coast of Turkey. The Royal Clipper sails from Barbados in April back to Rome and will do a series of seven-night Rome roundtrips visiting Sorrento, Taormina and other places. It will also do a series of 10- and 11-night sailings in July, August and September up the Dalmatian Coast to Venice and back. Star Clipper will be sailing from Athens to the Greek Isles and Turkey, which is quite popular. There are a couple of sailings that go from Athens to Venice and back along the Dalmatian Coast.
Star Clipper is not returning to the Far East. Why not? The ship will spend next winter in the Caribbean, operating alternating itineraries from St. Maarten. We’re moving the Star Clipper out of Asia due to the rise of piracy in the Strait of Malacca, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and the increasing boldness of the pirates. The stability of the region is too unpredictable at this time. We hope that the piracy situation can be alleviated, and when that happens, we plan to return to Thailand and Malaysia.