Royal Caribbean International - Interview With Adam M. Goldstein, President And CEO
November 23, 2009 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published Travel and Leisure--Airlines, Hotels, Resorts, Cruise Lines, and Restaurants Report offering a timely review of the sector. This Special Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. Please find an excerpt below.
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Adam M. Goldstein is President and Chief Executive Officer of Royal Caribbean International, the main brand of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. He was named President of Royal Caribbean International in February 2005, and in September 2007 he expanded his role to include CEO. Mr. Goldstein oversees fleet operations, sales and marketing, brand development, supply chain management, government and community relations, and Royal Celebrity Tours.
Prior to his appointment Mr. Goldstein served as Royal Caribbean's Executive Vice President, Brand Operations, with similar responsibilities from 2002 to 2005. He has been with the company since 1988. Prior to 2002, he held the positions of Senior Vice President, Total Guest Satisfaction; Senior Vice President, Marketing; Vice President, Marketing; Vice President, International Sales and Marketing; Director, Market Development; and Corporate Secretary to Royal Caribbean's board of directors.
Mr. Goldstein serves on the board of directors of the Travel Industry Association and was National Chair of the TIA in 2001. He also serves on the board of trustees of Our Kids, Inc., a non-profit with oversight responsibility for foster care and related services for approximately 5,000 children in Florida's Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. In 1998 Advertising Age named Mr. Goldstein to the "Marketing 100," the magazine's annual roundup of the best and brightest American and international marketing minds. Mr. Goldstein graduated with honors from Princeton University, majoring in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He also has a law degree from Harvard and an MBA with distinction from INSEAD, the European business school in Fontainebleau, France.
TWST: Let's begin with a brief history and overview of Royal Caribbean International. Would you tell us how the company got to be what it is today?
Mr. Goldstein: We are almost exactly 40 years old, and we started with the vision of doing warm-weather cruising on new cruise ships. We are the only cruise line, at least today, of any significance that started with new ships right from the get-go. So you can trace that lineage all the way through to Oasis of the Seas. It has always been our mentality to build new ships the best that they could be built; and there have been about six or seven generations over the 40 years, but it's directly traceable back to Song of Norway in 1970. We have only ever been involved in offering cruises - that's what we do. And we have started from fairly humble beginnings, with our original three ships being based out of Miami, to now cruising everywhere in the world pretty much all the time.
There are two brands in the industry - Royal Caribbean International (RCL) and our competitor, Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL), are the two largest cruise brands in the world. We are much more globally oriented than they are. So Royal Caribbean International is the major player in the North American cruise market, but also a major player in Europe, Asia and Latin America. And the global development is a really big part of our strategy, as are the innovations that continue to come out on our new ships. Oasis of the Seas is really showcasing our dedication to innovation to delivering the "wow" as we like to say, with features like Central Park and Boardwalk, and the Royal Promenade, and the ability to zip line above the Boardwalk, and so on and so forth. We offer a variety of options and choices for people so that no matter how active oriented they are or how passive they want to be, there is something for everyone on board our ships. We've brought out many generations, as I've said, but now with Oasis of the Seas coming out on October 28, we are entering a phase that is unprecedented for us and for the industry because the ship is unbelievable.
TWST: Oasis of the Seas is your newest ship to enter service. Tell us more about it. What makes that ship unlike any other?
Mr. Goldstein: It begins because people are fascinated by its size, because 225,282 gross registered tons is the largest cruise ship constructed yet. But that number of gross registered tons isn't really of interest to us. What's of interest to us, and what we think is ultimately why so much attention is coming to Oasis of the Seas, is the variety and choice that she offers.
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