The director of the Nova Star Discovery Program began by reassuring stakeholders attending the tourism industry café at the Rodd Grand Hotel on Thursday afternoon. Vanguard “First things first, we are still targeting for a May 1 start date,” said Julie Walters. The new ferry is scheduled to leave Portland the evening of May 1 at 9 p.m. eastern time and arrive in Yarmouth at 8 a.m. Atlantic time. The schedule has changed by one hour to ease the impact of commercial traffic in Portland’s downtown core during rush hour. The turnaround time in Yarmouth will be 10 a.m. Walters said the reservation centre would be going live “shortly” and that she saw a demo of the software earlier this week. The vessel will leave the Singapore shipyard for a 35-day sail to Portland or Portsmouth in early March, for modifications to its casino. A port-of-calls tour in northern New England to drum up interest in Nova Star cruises as well as Nova Scotia or VIP days in Portland will take place after 10 days of downtime. Walters says the focus will be to sell passage on the vessel and to educate the market that the ferry from New England to Nova Scotia is back in 2014. Three market segments will be targeted – families, urban sophisticates and outdoorsy elites. The bulk of business is expected from those 40 to 45 or older, who are interested in culture, education and outdoor types of experiences. “We’re really trying to craft that as we build our marketing message and our onboard offerings,” said Walters. Digital marketing will be ramping up in next few weeks. Nova Star cruises will be attending 22 trade shows between now and the end of November, including American Bus Association, Philadelphia Inquirer Travel Show, Washington DC Travel and Adventure Show, Boston Globe Travel Show, New York Times Travel Show, Triple A Travel Marketplace, Saltscapes Expo, Atlantic Canada Showplace, Maine Motorcoach Association and Maine Tourism Conference. Walters says her phone is “ringing off the hook” with requests from motorcoach companies. “It’s really encouraging for us. We know there is a strong demand out there for this product.” Print advertising includes Triple A, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, as well as targeted radio and TV ads, and there is a robust social media budget. Nova Star Cruises business development manager Danny Morton was unable to be the guest speaker as he was attending meetings in Halifax. The event was rescheduled from Jan. 22 because of a blizzard.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:42:39 +0000
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