USA/Caribbean. Heinemann Americas launches its retail offer aboard the 2,056-capacity Carnival Fantasy on Friday, marking the concessionaire’s third cruise ship plying the Caribbean.
The launch is part of a wider retail partnership agreement signed by Heinemann Americas and Heinemann Asia Pacific with Carnival Cruise Line on four of its ships.
The fourth vessel, Carnival Spirit, will be based in Sydney, Australia where Heinemann Asia Pacific will begin operations in June.
The event on Carnival Fantasy – which sails from Mobile, Alabama – follows store openings on Port Canaveral-based Carnival Liberty four weeks ago, and on Carnival Ecstasy – sailing out of Charleston, South Carolina – earlier this week.
Commenting on the Liberty launch, Heinemann Americas CEO Nadine Heubel said: “More than 1,000 customers attended the grand opening – and there was a line out the door until closing time.”
Across the three Caribbean-routed ships, Heinemann has stores covering 548sq m in total (299sq m on Liberty and 249sq m split between the other two ships). Product categories offered include beauty, liquor, tobacco, confectionery, watches, fashion apparel and accessories.
Despite speedy growth in Asia Pacific, the Caribbean easily remains the biggest cruise market in the world according to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
In 2017, deployments – based on the standard ALBD (available lower berth day) measure of passenger capacity – gave the Caribbean 35.4% market share followed by the Mediterranean at 15.8%.
As reported by The Moodie Davitt Report in December, cruise demand globally is set to rise by +5.4% to 27.2 million this year, based on CLIA estimates.
