Queen Mary II sales strong on maiden voyage

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Cunard's new flagship achieved impressive retail results on its 14-day inaugural cruise, reports onboard concessionaire Harding Brothers

Sales onboard Queen Mary II performed well above forecast on the new Cunard flagship's maiden voyage, concessionaire Harding Brothers has reported. Stores were boosted in particular by strong demand for inaugural cruise logoed items, which had been eagerly awaited by passengers, many of whom had booked their places on the Southampton-Fort Lauderdale crossing months in advance.

Harding Brothers director Harold Gittelmon told TRW that the operator saw impressive sales across the mix, and that he expected logo sales to stay high for the coming year. Sales staff were often forced to redirect customers to other stores due to long lines in logo stores.

?The maiden voyage threw up some operational issues such as replenishment, in terms of ship layout,? said Gittelmon. ?But the ship and store layouts and the product mix worked reasonably well.?

Gittelmon predicted that the cruise market would cater more and more towards the mass market over the coming year, with cruise operators continuing to increase their capacity. ?We do not expect to see growth in revenue per passenger but in the number of passengers,? he said.