After decades of rapid growth, the cruise industry has become one of the most profitable in the entire sector of global leisure and tourism. The improvements in communication are an essential cog in the wheel, and while cruise lines might not always be engaging with the customer face-to-face, each step of the journey provides an opportunity to make the experience just as unique and tailored to each individual’s preferences.

With hesitancy to travel remaining due to COVID-19, cruise lines have taken the steps to implement and market the proper health protocols to their customer base. This includes contactless vital-sign health screening and private & anonymized contact tracing. You can find more details about these health solutions on our website.

Let’s take a closer look at other ways in which cruise lines are communicating both within the ship and with team members inland.

Staying Connected From Start to Finish

The concept of using a cruise-exclusive app that only gives access to ship-specific information, such as deck layouts and programming schedules, is very outdated now. Customers should rightfully expect to be able to contact family and friends on the ship, and even those on the outside world further down the line.

netTALK Maritime’s onboard communication package, with ship-to-shore voice and messaging for passengers, allows everyone to stay connected — and the app permits unlimited calls and messages for the entire cruise. This allows groups on board to meet in the various areas of the ship seamlessly. It represents the ideal future scenario whereby connectivity on cruises is indistinguishable from that on land.

Personalization At All Times

Priorities for cruise lines have changed throughout the pandemic as guests’ needs have adapted. During the early months of 2020, cruise lines were focusing on simply staying connected with guests online, creating social media campaigns to keep them updated. However, this changed as the itch to travel increased throughout 2020. Oceania Cruises, for example, offered guests trivia nights through Facebook Live, and even cooking challenges hosted by the on-board chefs. Moving forward, guests can expect this personalization to continue even with operations fully back underway.

Cruise lines could even issue a dedicated contact number to all passengers so that family and friends onshore can reach the passenger. This is especially useful for the older demographic that takes long world cruises, and even if they need medical assistance from their doctors, it’s an excellent way to stay in touch.

Ship-to-ship Communication and The Customer Effect

Improving communication between ships is one of the main goals of netTALK Maritime. We want crew members and captains from different vessels to easily communicate and coordinate in real-time (instead of relying on emails or radio comms). Even colleagues conducting audits or training on other vessels should be able to communicate with each other in real-time. The direct effect of this is that customers can feel more secure — adverse weather conditions or any other threats to a ship can be communicated to another ship much quicker, so the overall experience is safer for all involved.

To read more about netTALK’s communication solutions, head over to our homepage.