Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Partners with Alibaba Group to Enter the China Cruise Market
Partnership to Transform the Cruise Experience for Chinese Travelers
MIAMI and HANGZHOU, China, May 04, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:NCLH) (Norwegian), a leading global cruise company, today announced the launch of a new partnership with Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA), the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company.
The two companies will leverage Norwegian’s expertise in providing exceptional vacation experiences and its innovative and award-winning cruise offerings along with Alibaba’s unparalleled insights into the wants and needs of the Chinese consumer to deliver the cruise industry’s most-customized product for the local China market. Utilizing Alibaba’s expansive ecosystem for engaging consumers, the two companies will look to further increase the awareness in China of the unique offerings of a cruise vacation. They plan to make it the preferred vacation choice among Chinese travelers in what is forecasted to become the cruise industry’s second-largest source market. The companies will also collaborate to provide Alibaba customers with new and unique online-to-offline (O2O) experiences at sea across Norwegian’s China-based and global fleet.
The announcement comes as Norwegian prepares to enter the Chinese cruise market in June 2017 with the introduction of its most innovative ship to date – the 3,850 passenger Norwegian Joy - the first premium cruise ship designed and constructed specifically for Chinese travelers. Norwegian Joy will be the 25th ship in Norwegian’s fleet across its three brands - Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
"We are pleased to partner with Norwegian Cruise Line on this tremendous initiative,” said Michael Evans, President of Alibaba Group. “Our expanded relationship is another example of how Alibaba is helping international brands to reach Chinese consumers through our robust data, marketing and technology. We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with Norwegian in the future.”
Alibaba operates the world’s largest online and mobile marketplaces. Alibaba is much more than an e-commerce company, offering a wide range of products and services to its nearly half billion monthly active users. In China, people live, work and play on Alibaba, buying local and overseas products, and enjoying its entertainment and lifestyle services – travel, food delivery and social networking.
"Since launching our first cruise over 50 years ago, Norwegian has grown to become one of the most storied names in leisure travel with groundbreaking innovations that have shaped the modern cruise industry," said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. "Our partnership with Alibaba will combine Norwegian's history of innovation in the cruise industry and our entry into the Chinese cruise market with Norwegian Joy with Alibaba's extensive knowledge of China's consumer base and its unique ecosystem which continually reaches consumers in new and ever-expanding ways."
“The partnership with Alibaba complements our strong, existing relationships with our loyal travel agents to provide unmatched insight into what Chinese travelers look for in a vacation experience,” said David Herrera, President, NCLH China. “The combination of Norwegian’s expertise in delivering memorable vacation experiences, Alibaba’s insights into Chinese consumer behavior and our travel agents’ knowledge of the preferences of Chinese travelers will create a cruise product unequaled in China.”
Norwegian took delivery of Norwegian Joy on April 27, after which the ship began her repositioning from the shipyard in Germany to her home port of Shanghai. Her inaugural and christening gala ceremony will take place on June 27 in Shanghai, featuring the ship’s Godfather, ‘King of Chinese Pop’, Wang Leehom.
About Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq:NCLH) is a leading global cruise company which operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands.
With a combined fleet of 25 ships with approximately 50,400 berths, these brands offer itineraries to more than 510 destinations worldwide. The Company will introduce seven additional ships through 2025, and has an option to introduce two additional ships for delivery in 2026 and 2027.
Norwegian Cruise Line is the innovator in cruise travel with a 50-year history of breaking the boundaries of traditional cruising. Most notably, Norwegian revolutionized the cruise industry by offering guests the freedom and flexibility to design their ideal cruise vacation on their schedule. Today, Norwegian invites guests to enjoy a relaxed, resort style cruise vacation on some of the newest and most contemporary ships at sea with a wide variety of accommodation options, including The Haven by Norwegian®, a luxury enclave with suites, private pools and dining, concierge service and personal butlers. Oceania Cruises offers an unrivaled vacation experience renowned for the finest cuisine at sea and destination-rich itineraries that span the globe. Expertly crafted voyages aboard designer-inspired, intimate ships call on ports across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and the Americas. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2017, Regent Seven Seas Cruises offers the industry’s most inclusive luxury experience aboard its all-suite fleet. A voyage with Regent Seven Seas Cruises includes round-trip air, highly personalized service, exquisite cuisine, fine wines and spirits, unlimited internet access, sightseeing excursions in every port, gratuities, ground transfers, a pre-cruise hotel package for guests staying in concierge-level suites and higher and beginning in summer 2017, business class air will be provided for all roundtrip air originating from the U.S. and Canada.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release, including, without limitation, those regarding details and expectations for our newbuild program and expected financing, our business strategy, financial position, plans, prospects and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to our activities), are forward-looking statements. Many, but not all, of these statements can be found by looking for words like "expect," "anticipate," "goal," "project," "plan," "believe," "seek," "will," "may," "forecast," "estimate," "intend," "future," and similar words. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. Examples of these risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to the impact of: adverse general economic and related factors, such as fluctuating or increasing levels of unemployment, underemployment and the volatility of fuel prices, declines in the securities and real estate markets, and perceptions of these conditions that decrease the level of disposable income of consumers or consumer confidence; the risks and increased costs associated with operating internationally; an impairment of our tradenames or goodwill which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results; our efforts to expand our business into new markets; adverse events impacting the security of travel, such as terrorist acts, acts of piracy, armed conflict and threats thereof and other international events; breaches in data security or other disturbances to our information technology and other networks; the spread of epidemics and viral outbreaks; adverse incidents involving cruise ships; changes in fuel prices and/or other cruise operating costs; our hedging strategies; our inability to obtain adequate insurance coverage; our substantial indebtedness, including the ability to raise additional capital to fund our operations, and to generate the necessary amount of cash to service our existing debt; restrictions in the agreements governing our indebtedness that limit our flexibility in operating our business; the significant portion of our assets pledged as collateral under our existing debt agreements and the ability of our creditors to accelerate the repayment of our indebtedness; our ability to incur significantly more debt despite our substantial existing indebtedness; volatility and disruptions in the global credit and financial markets, which may adversely affect our ability to borrow and could increase our counterparty credit risks, including those under our credit facilities, derivatives, contingent obligations, insurance contracts and new ship progress payment guarantees; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; our inability to recruit or retain qualified personnel or the loss of key personnel; future changes relating to how external distribution channels sell and market our cruises; our reliance on third parties to provide hotel management services to certain ships and certain other services; delays in our shipbuilding program and ship repairs, maintenance and refurbishments; and other factors set forth under "Risk Factors" in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and subsequent filings by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The above examples are not exhaustive and new risks emerge from time to time. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections regarding our present and future business strategies and the environment in which we will operate in the future. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change of events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement was based, except as required by law.
Investor Relations Contact Andrea DeMarco (305) 468-2339 InvestorRelations@nclcorp.com Media Contact Vanessa Picariello (305) 436-4713 PublicRelations@ncl.com
Released May 4, 2017
