Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours will take over full management of its entire river-ship fleet on the Rhine, Main, Danube and Douro Rivers of Europe next year.
The Australian-owned company had enlisted German firm G&P Cruise Hotel Management to manage all its luxury Scenic ‘Space-Ships’ between 2010 and 2015.
Since then Scenic Group has slowly expanded its own operation of its five-star ships. In 2016, Scenic handed the operation of Scenic Jewel and Scenic Jade to Apollo, before the group took over full operation of those two vessels, along with that of Scenic Opal in 2017. In 2018/2019, Scenic Group added Scenic Diamond, Scenic Gem and Scenic Sapphire to its own operation.
With a fleet of 12 ships on the waterways of Europe, Scenic will start the 2020 cruise season also managing its other six vessels in Europe; Scenic Jasper, Scenic Crystal, Scenic Pearl, Scenic Ruby, Scenic Amber and Scenic Azure (in Portugal).
In a statement, Scenic said the transition to full management in Europe is “part of a drive to ensure consistency and excellence in product delivery across the entire fleet”.
“Scenic has been managing six vessels in the fleet internally since 2017, with G&P managing a further five,” said Rob Voss, COO Scenic Group. “The decision to take back the management function of these five ships is not related to performance. G&P and their crews have done a marvellous job delivering the desired guest experience as can be seen by the very high guest satisfaction survey results, regularly running at 95%.
“Instead this decision is the next logical step in delivery on a global brand, and the necessity for absolute product consistency and delivery across the entire fleet.”
Mr Voss said that the strategy will also benefit Scenic Group by providing “increased purchasing power to source top quality ingredients that will continue to differentiate our on board dining experiences.
“Most importantly having the entire hospitality crew directly employed and managed by Scenic will enable us to create a generation of crew who will genuinely exemplify our Scenic culture, and will enable us to invest in high-level standards for crew, leveraging e-learning and enabling career paths,” he concluded.
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