PHOTO: Brian O’Connor, Princess Cruises & Cunard Line, vice president of sales North America.

After the christening festivities for the new Regal Princess, Vacation Agent had a chance to catch up with Brian O’Connor, vice president of sales-North America for both Princess Cruises and Cunard Line. He joined Cunard in 2006 as director-marketing and public relations after serving in marketing and public relations positions for Hilton Hotels Corp. O’Connor also serves as chairman of the Cruise Lines International Association’s trade relations and sales committee.

Princess is spending $20 million starting in January to continue with the “Come Back New” campaign to reach “meaningful travelers.” Originally launched in January 2014, the campaign increased visits to the Princess website by 27 percent; the number of first-time visitors jumped 47 percent. Obviously it’s a successful campaign, but what is meant by “meaningful travelers”?

We identify them as individuals who enjoy traveling to different places each time, experiencing different cultures, trying food within those local regions and exploring the world. They are folks who appreciate the opportunity to both disconnect and reconnect with family, friends and loved ones in a new way.

We discovered in our research that the definition of cruising had been hijacked to mean adrenaline activities or Las Vegas-style thrills. There is a segment of consumers that really is looking for a more meaningful experience versus Las Vegas-style thrills. Those aren’t a bad thing, but we’re more clearly defining what Princess is.

Princess Cruises is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015 with new onboard features and events, including special menus with foods from the past, the Love Boat Disco Deck Party, an anniversary party with balloon drop on every cruise this year, the new Night Sky Lounge in the Retreat pool area, and Festivals of the World such as Oktoberfest and Mardi Gras found on board. Can you tell us more about it?

We wanted to make sure that, when an agent books clients with us in 2015, they are going to have an elevated level of celebration, all tied around the 50th anniversary. On every cruise, we’ll have a golden balloon drop in the Piazza and a Love Boat Disco Party — things that will make all clients feel like they’re part of the 50th anniversary. “The Love Boat” will be playing on the televisions, and we also have our new IPA beer Sea Witch.

The Festivals of the World will mean that no matter where you are in the world, if it’s Mardi Gras time, we’ll have a Mardi Gras celebration with colorful banners like you would see in New Orleans and celebratory activities.

The celebratory dinner menu celebrates favorite dishes that evoke the past five decades. [Options include duck terrine with apricot preserves from the 1960s and 70s and ossobuco agnolotti from the 1980s and 90s.] The Decades menu started with the naming ceremony on board Regal Princess and then goes fleetwide.

In addition, we’re offering foods from around the world so you get a taste of the region you’re sailing in. We’ve already started the Caribbean theme menu.

Can you explain what the new Princess@Sea feature is all about?

It’s a landing page, and all you need to access the interface is to turn your Wi-Fi on. You don’t have to have your cellular data on. The most important point is there is a messaging interface on one of the tabs, which allows people to instant message or direct message with friends, family and the other people they’re sailing with. Let’s say you’re traveling with a group and there’s a change in plans for dinner. How do you reach everybody? Now you have a way.

And it’s free. You also can access the daily schedule, restaurant menus and your stateroom folio on your mobile device.

Princess@Sea was launched on the Royal Princess last year and now it’s on the Regal Princess. It will be rolled out to all our cruise ships by the end of 2015.

Can you tell us about your role on CLIA’s trade relations committee?

As chairman, I’m leading a team of senior sales and marketing executives from all the member lines. We’ve been working for the past year to develop a whole new value proposition for what it means for travel agents to become a member of CLIA. All the member lines stepped up to the table and said it’s important we have a very strong distribution channel. They showed our support for the trade by offering a broad spectrum of benefits for them, including bonus commissions opportunities, priority invitations, fam trips and seminars at sea, special travel agent fares. It’s really quite an incredible new value proposition. I encourage the trade to take a close look at it. Membership is as little as $49, and we all punched it up a lot. It’s unprecedented.