P&O Cruises weathers the storm as holidaymakers splash out on winter getaways

Although the cost of living squeeze is hitting families in the pocket, Britons are still keen to splash out on winter getaways, says the boss of P&O Cruises.

Britain’s biggest cruise lines company has seen passengers flock back to its ships, while parent company Carnival has revealed bookings are at an ‘all-time high’.

‘People trade down on supermarkets or cars or eating out, but they don’t sacrifice their holidays,’ Paul Ludlow, president of Carnival UK, told the Mail.

Carnival carried 5.7m passengers in the first six months of 2023 – close to the 6m who travelled with it in the same period of 2019 and the 5.8m in 2018 before the pandemic hit.

And ships are projected to be full for the rest of the year.

All aboard: Paul Ludlow (pictured), president of P&O Cruises parent company Carnival UK, has been on a mission to get youngsters onto their vessels.

Cruises across the Caribbean are proving particularly popular for this winter, Ludlow said, as well as jaunts in the Med.

The cruise giant, meanwhile, continues to hike its prices, with the average P&O trip costing cruisers an average £120 a night.

A 14-night Caribbean cruise over Christmas on board the Britannia starts at £1,499 but can be considerably more expensive depending on the cabin and other options. 

Despite the stereotypical image of those who go on cruise ship holidays, Ludlow, 44, has been on a mission to get youngsters onto their vessels, investing in ‘alternative restaurants’ such as sushi or vegan food as well as gimmicky escape rooms across newer ships.

His efforts have seen the median age of a cruise goer drop to 46, having fallen every year for the past decade.

Carnival was founded in Florida in 1972 by businessman Ted Arison, who was also behind Norwegian Cruise Lines. The P&O brand, however, dates all the way back to the 1830s when it was a shipping firm.

Carnival has since grown into an industry behemoth with 9 separate brands and over 90 ships in its fleet, including seven P&O Cruises vessels, sailing to the four corners of the world.

But a major obstacle that is likely to put off many eco- conscious youngsters is the industry’s well-documented impact on the environment.

The cruise business is a major global polluter, with studies suggesting that one large ship releases a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars.

In 2016, Carnival-owned Princess Cruises agreed to pay a £31million penalty in the US for illegally dumping oil-contaminated waste into the sea and acts by employees to try to cover up the incident.

Three years later, Carnival agreed to pay an additional £16million for violating probation terms.

Ludlow said he ‘always invites conversation’ about climate change but said that the industry had made ‘consider-able strides’.

But aside from environmental concerns, Ludlow has had a busy in-tray to deal with.

It was his job to steer P&O through the various Covid lockdowns, where cruise liners were being branded ‘plague ships’. 

Speaking from his nautical-themed office at P&O’s Southampton headquarters, Ludlow said this coverage was ‘unfair’ during an ‘incredibly difficult time’ for the 200-year-old brand. 

Expansion: Carnival now has 24 ships in its fleet, including seven P&O vessels, sailing to the four corners of the world

‘The cruise industry initially made the news – unfairly I think – because, at the time, there were a lot of people who were very scared,’ he said.

‘The logistical operation was nothing I’d ever seen before.

‘We were working day and night with big maps on the wall and plotting how we could repatriate people to their homes.’

To make matters worse, this all coincided with the business trying to get to grips with the changes caused by Brexit.

Visa rules were overhauled when ships docked and guidelines about onward passage had to be revamped.

Carnival lost an estimated £7billion in 2020 because of the pandemic, with a further £6billion blow the following year.

But just when the company thought it was out of the woods with Covid, it was hit with another tornado – the P&O Ferries debacle.

Despite being an entirely separate business, P&O Cruises suffered a backlash when the ferries company illegally sacked nearly 800 workers over Zoom in March 2022.

‘People misattributed cruises with ferries,’ he said.

Clearly still frustrated by the drama of it all, Ludlow added: ‘We had to work really hard to try and dispel that myth.’

His team even ran a large-scale campaign at the time, distancing itself from the ferries business out of fear that consumers may boycott the brand. A statement at the time made clear that: ‘Our names may both begin with P&O. But that’s where the similarity ends.’

P&O Cruises became part of the Carnival group in 2003. P&O Ferries is owned by Dubai-based DP World.

Ludlow said: ‘We had to ride through it. It was unhelpful. It was difficult to deal with post- pandemic when we thought we were moving through it with brighter times.’

Having grown up between the Isle of Wight and London, Ludlow was hooked on travel straight out of university when he became a Tui representative.

He spent nine months in the sun in Cyprus, booking customers’ excursions and arranging airport transfers.

‘What I learned is that I love the travel industry and working for a business where you inherently sell happiness and holidays are really important for that,’ he said.

He later joined the Carnival graduate scheme in 2001, working his way up from the sales team to president of Carnival UK, which means he runs Cunard, Carnival’s luxury business, and P&O cruises globally, managing 2,000 staff at the Southampton office and 14,000 employees at sea.

And despite the challenges that have been thrown at him in the past two decades, Ludlow remains largely upbeat about the future of his industry – and specifically P&O Cruises’ place in the British psyche.

He said: ‘Brands like us are part of the DNA of Britain – they have incredible history and weathered storms in the past and people can put trust in us.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk