In this episode of Talks at GS, Frank Del Rio, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Lines, discusses leading one of the world’s largest cruise line companies through the pandemic and his perspective on the future of sailing.
On lessons learned from the pandemic: “We’re going to have a lot more cash in the balance sheet going forward…This idea that things always are going to operate as planned—we saw that’s not the case. At least at the beginning, we’re going to be a little gun shy. And so there’s going to be more cash in the balance sheet than we ordinarily would have or would need, just in case.”
On the future of sailing: “If we can indeed operate the itineraries that are actually selling, if we can actually sail those itineraries, 2022 could be a record year. That’s how good things are for the future. And it’s nuts to think that you’ve been shut down for most of 2020, you’re going to be shut down for a good part of 2021, and you can rebound that quickly. And the answer is, yes, that’s how much pent up demand there is. 50 million people would be cruisers that would have cruised in 2020 and 2021 have not. And they want to come back to the high seas.”
The episode was recorded on May 18, 2021.
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