A Cruise interview with Virgin Voyages: Career Opportunities

Introduction

The cruise industry and related businesses are one of the fastest growing segments in the service industry offering a variety of hospitality and management opportunities. The geographic market of the cruise segment transcends the national borders into international destinations. Globally about 31 million passengers cruised in 2024 (a record number), with an expanding Asia cruise market potentially adding hundreds of millions more. Our ICHRIE cruise SIG enhances student competencies for careers in the cruise industry, both at sea and on land at cruise corporate headquarters (in Miami, Orlando, and Seattle to name a few land based operations centers).

I interviewed John Delaney Senior Commercial Advisor currently of Virgin Voyages out of London. John is the former President of Windstar cruises and a Senior Vice President of Lindblad National Geographic cruises. In addition, John has authored a chapter on Cruise Revenue Management in our new textbook (by Fred DeMicco & Ryan Wootten) Cruise Ship Management with Kendall-Hunt and is passionate about getting our hospitality management students into the cruise line management business as a career.

Question 1 from Dr. Fred DeMicco: John, tell us about your cruise career journey, how it started, the cruise leadership experiences you have had?

John’s response: My career in the cruise industry happened accidentally and was actually my third career.

Early on I was a member of the senior management team at The Cheesecake Factory when they first went public in 1993. Because I always loved the numbers side of the business, I decided to go back to school and get an accounting degree and ended up in Finance at the Disney Company running Financial Planning & Analysis at Disneyland.

Then in 2003 I decided to relocate to Seattle to be closer to family and was going to take another finance role at Microsoft, but answered a phone call from a recruiter and on a whim accepted a consulting job for a company called Holland America Line, and twenty-two years later I'm still in the cruise industry. It's a business that I truly love, and I feel very grateful for all of the travel opportunities it has afforded me.

Without a doubt, my operations experience in the restaurant business gave me a real advantage when I went into Finance because I understood business basics and how they impacted financial results. And similarly, when I started at Holland America, the combination of both operations and finance experience gave me a huge advantage in my career path. I started initially doing operational and financial analysis directly for the CEO, and the time was right, was promoted to Vice President of Revenue Marketing, and a couple of years after that, Senior Vice President for global marketing & sales at Seabourn Cruise Line, a sister company to Holland.

I spent five and a half years in the role, and it provided me with global experience and increasing scope so that when I was approached by Windstar when they were looking for a new president, I was a perfect fit.

And now, I'm probably having the most fun utilizing all of this experience as a Senior Commercial Advisor for Richard Branson and his cruise line Virgin Voyages.

Question 2: John, please tell us what you are doing now with Virgin Voyages?

John’s Response: When Virgin Voyages launched their cruise line, they were determined to create a product that was different from any other cruise line, and because of that they had very little cruise experience amongst their executives. On top of that, they took delivery of their first ship just as Covid was becoming a pandemic.

So as a Senior Commercial Advisor, I provide advice and knowledge of the cruise industry to help the company be successful. Most recently I've been helping them grow their international sales operations, helping them open eleven new European countries this year for business. But I also advise on things like growth strategy, revenue management, and ship deployment. I work closely with the CEO on many different topics that mostly affect our ability to fill our ships at premium pricing. As an advisor I enjoy the flexibility of being my own boss, while genuinely helping an up-and-coming business.

Question 3: Please tell us about the current and future growth potential of the cruise line industry?

John’s response: The cruise industry has enjoyed explosive growth over the last twenty years, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Dozens of new and bigger ships are being launched every year and cruising has never been more popular. But the fact is, the business is still really in its infancy. For example, The United States is the number one cruise market in the world, but would you believe that less than 5% of the population has ever taken a cruise? People take lots of vacations, and the cruise industry has a huge opportunity to continue capturing a larger and larger percentage of vacation spending.

Additionally, it is growing more and more in popularity around the globe with many new markets. Examples of this include India and China where cruising is just gaining a foothold. On top of that, you have established hotel brands which are entering the cruise industry such as The Ritz Calton, The Four Seasons, and Aman resorts. As cruising continues to gain in popularity, there will be many other new players in the market.

Question 4: John, tell us about the career opportunities for our hospitality management students and graduates in the cruise line industry?

John’s response: There has never been a better opportunity for a career in the cruise industry than there is today. With the explosive growth in the industry that I mentioned, cruise companies are having a harder and harder time finding new talent and are increasingly turning to Hospitality Colleges for recruitment. They understand that these colleges provide a huge pool of potential new management for them with the benefit of them having a solid understanding of hospitality fundamentals through their education. Cruise lines have realized that there's no better pool of talent, and the hospitality colleges have realized the importance of cruise. When you think about it, cruise ships are just big floating resort hotels, so not unlike a career in the hotel or restaurant industry. But they also offer much more in terms of experience with high end spas and cutting-edge entertainment.

And because of the breadth of cruising styles today, hospitality students can focus on what interests them the most. If a student is primarily interested in luxury, they can focus on The Ritz Carlton or The Four Seasons cruise lines. Similarly, if they are more interested in the fast paced and dynamic Vegas style side of hospitality, they can pursue Royal Caribbean or Virgin Voyages; there's a cruise line for everyone. But without a doubt the best thing about starting your career in the cruise industry is that you will be paid to travel the world, with all your living expenses covered, and the opportunity for rapid career growth.

Fred DeMicco, Thank you John for your Insights on the cruise ship management industry and the grand opportunities for cruise careers for our ICHRIE members and our students.

~ Frederick DeMicco, Ph.D. is the Co-Chair with Dr. Vinnie Rege of the ICHRIE Cruise Special Interest group (SIG) www.chrie.org

Fred DeMicco
Ph.D., RDN, Professor, the W.A. Franke College of Business, the University of Northern Arizona
The University of Memphis | Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management