Social Media and Application: All Aboard!

The US company Carnival Cruise Line launched a new mobile application named Carnival Hub for their guests during the cruise.

Carnival Cruise Line points out the importance for the customers to stay connected even during vacations. 

The company understood their needs and offers a solution.

The application has various features.

Firstly, it  allows customers to chat with other guests on board. The company also offers different charged packages per day or per week. Guests can have access to internet and an unlimited access to social medias, to their email, etc. The application allows customers to stay connected and to keep contact with their family or friends.  By using internet services, it is more convenient for them and less expensive. The company also developed premium packages allowing guests to use internet-calling system such as Skype. They developed different offers to reply to the various needs of customers.

Via this application, the company also took the opportunity to give information about the cruise, events and offers on board such as special dinners, itinerary details, etc. Guests can have information quickly and easily.

The company constantly wants to innovate in order to offer the more customized experience as possible for their guests.  In order to do so, they are thinking to launch a new services in the application allowing guests to purchase touristic tours, to access to photos taken by professionals photographers, etc.

The application has been tested on one cruise, the Carnival Breeze. As the pilot test of using this application succeed, the company plans to spread the concept in other of their ships.

The launch of this new application represents a lot of benefits for the Cruise Line as well as for the consumer.

First of all, the social media package provides extra charges that the company can put on the consumer and which provides a new source of revenue. Thanks to the implication of customer to the social media, it provides Carnival Cruises another way of promoting the cruise with pictures of their guests on board. Moreover, it is an extra source of promotion for the Cruise Line but also for the events that are taking place during the cruise thanks to the chat that allow guests to communicate between each other. By producing new source of revenue and increasing the promotion, the new application proved out to be a profitable project.

On the consumer point of view, this package is highly valued as it gives them the possibility to be connected to their friends and family while on vacation. This continuous connection is becoming more and more important for tourists who don’t want to lose access to technology while they go on a cruise. The additional services provided by the application, such as day-by-day schedule, are also giving them a personalized care during their trip. Those services also give the guests information in real time about their arrival destination which bring additional value to the product. Finaly, the guest network created by the chat features can allow them to communicate and share their experience and tips during their vacation.

Gabrielle Mathiaud & Emmanuelle Lacroix

Sources:

http:// http://www.travolution.co.uk/articles/2015/01/16/10588/carnival-cruise-line-begins-roll-out-of-onboard-mobile-app-for-cruise-guests.html

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Telecommuncations_g177-Cruise_Ship_On_Mobile_Screen_p104025.html