New players like Klook, Lazada swooping into vacuum created by pandemic – sales went from zero to 'couple of million dollars'.

Harry Sommer, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, told a good story during last week’s CruiseWorld Asia.

He spoke of how he started a travel agency right after September 11, when everyone thought he was crazy.

Turned out it was the best time, he said. “I could get outstanding talent. Frontline agents who would normally not work for a startup, I was able to attract them. Management talent from cruise lines that had been laid off, I got them. And cruise lines were willing to talk to me,” said Sommer, who ran his mid-sized travel agency for seven years.

As has been much discussed during this pandemic, it is always after great disruption that big shifts happen. Expedia took off after September 11, Airbnb came out of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis and now we are all waiting to see what will come out of Covid in travel.

From top right, clockwise, Chan Chee Chong, GlobalTix; Kenneth Yeo, Royal Caribbean; and Michael Goh, Dream Cruise.

The cruising sector, in particular, is going through a Titanic (had to use it, sorry) shift. This month, Singapore will mark the first anniversary of “cruises to nowhere”. Who’d ever believe Singapore would have a domestic cruise market?

Between Royal Caribbean and Genting Cruise Lines, approximately more than 300,000 locals have taken to the seas – something most, especially the young, have never done before.

Read the full story here