With 100 Days to Go until Australia’s First “Smart Ship” Arrives, New Research Reveals the Importance of the Internet on Holidays.
A new study into Australians’ internet habits has found a staggering 91 per cent of the people believe it’s important to have access to the internet while on holiday, with close to a quarter nominating internet access as one of their key considerations when choosing a holiday destination.
Conducted by YouGov on behalf of Princess Cruises, the survey of more than a 1000 Australians found most people (58 per cent) would only tolerate being offline for a maximum of three days during their holiday, with 27 per cent unwilling to spend more than 24 hours without internet access.
However, while holidaymakers want to be online, 81 per cent of those surveyed said there were still barriers to using the internet while on holiday, with most (62 per cent) blaming the high cost of access and slow internet speeds.
Meanwhile, more than half (55 per cent) of respondents who are considering choosing a cruise for their next holiday said they would be more likely to sail if they had access to high speed internet at a reasonable cost during their time onboard.
The survey findings have been released today as Princess Cruises celebrates 100 days to go until the first “Smart Ship” sails in Australian waters – a milestone which will be reached when Ruby Princess is enabled with Princess’ groundbreaking MedallionClass Holidays technology on 27 January 2020 during her maiden Australia and New Zealand Summer deployment.
“This survey underlines just how important technology now is in our choice of holidays, with 1 in 2 people surveyed saying they would be more likely to take a cruise if they had access to high speed internet,” Princess Cruises Senior Vice President Asia Pacific Stuart Allison said.
“It’s clear that Princess Cruises’ new ground-breaking technology will represent a seismicshift in how our guests travel and interact with their ship. In the same way that smart phones have simplified our daily lives, our new “Smart-Ships” will help remove the friction points from travel, allowing us to deliver a more personalised service to our guests and ultimately give our guests more time to relax on their cruise holiday.” Mr Allison added.
Princess Cruises’ award-winning OceanMedallion is a complimentary wearable device that elevates the onboard guest experience by enhancing guest–crew interactions and enabling interactive entertainment in order to deliver a high level of service and personalised attention on a large scale. Passengers will enjoy experiences designed specifically for them, including:
Expedited Arrival – From kerbside to poolside in a breeze: Guests who arrive at the terminal with travel documents (i.e. passports) uploaded to their profile enjoy a streamlined and expedited check-in process that gets their holiday started even sooner. Personalisation starts pre-cruise as guests become OceanReady before arriving at the port.
On-Demand Services – Food, beverage, retail order and hospitality services delivered to your location: Using smart devices, guests have the ability to order drinks, food and retail items like sunscreen with OceanNow and have them delivered directly anywhere on board, including to their stateroom.
Family and Friends Locator – Finding travel companions and directional ship information is easy: Accessible on portals throughout the ships and via guests’ smart devices, OceanCompass leverages the OceanMedallion to easily locate and chat with friends and family on board, as well as enabling point-to-point wayfinding throughout the ship. OceanCompass guides guests, providing directional information along the way.
Other innovative features of the Princess MedallionClass experience include:
Keyless stateroom entry: Access to staterooms is a seamless experience where each guest is securely validated as the door automatically unlocks. Personalised greetings, including loyalty level recognition and celebrations, welcome the guest on their door portal.
Interactive voyage timeline: Available now on ship portals, JourneyView is an interactive timeline that lets guests scroll through all of the events available on board during their voyage.
Interactive game play: On portals located ship-wide and using smart devices with PlayOcean, guests can enjoy a new level of fun with interactive games, a digital scavenger hunt, customisable avatars and more. PlayOcean also transforms guests’ mobile devices into game controllers for interactive gaming on the massive Movies Under the Stars screen.
Source: Carnival Cruise Lines
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