Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 2: Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. We got with us a
Speaker 2: Dondra Ritz and Taller CEO of Asimar A Cruzz. Asimar
Speaker 2: A Cruzez has a fleet of four mid sized ships
Speaker 2: that carry about seven hundred guests in oceans rivers, and
Speaker 2: they are able to docket locations that the bigger ships
Speaker 2: can't access. Dondre joins us from Colorado. Good to have
Speaker 2: you with us this afternoon. You've been in the travel
Speaker 2: industry for four decades, twenty years in airlines, twenty years
Speaker 2: and cruises. Give us an idea of the environment that
Speaker 2: you see right now and remind everyone of the guest
Speaker 2: profile of the folks at at Azamara Cruzz.
Speaker 3: So thank you so much. First of all, to both
Speaker 3: of you for having me on. And I do not
Speaker 3: blame you for wanting to share a room. We've got
Speaker 3: plenty of space. You can all have your own stay
Speaker 3: room with us. But it was funny hearing that. And yeah,
Speaker 3: the industry is really beaming and we're excited that we're
Speaker 3: back in the water and that cruising is really taking off.
Speaker 3: In fact, it's rebounding much faster than other vacation experiences,
Speaker 3: where we're actually up one hundred and seven percent versus
Speaker 3: nineteen by the end of twenty three, when trips to
Speaker 3: international destinations are actually down twelve percent. And so we
Speaker 3: have continued to see that momentum into twenty twenty four
Speaker 3: and twenty five is actually looking even stronger. And the
Speaker 3: audience for really the Asimara brand is that affluent traveler
Speaker 3: who has both the time and the desire to really
Speaker 3: get immersed in these beautiful destinations around the world.
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about Asimara cruises, because
Speaker 1: I don't know that it's as well known to be
Speaker 1: fair as some of the big cruise liners that are
Speaker 1: publicly traded. Tell us little bit about who you guys
Speaker 1: are long you've been around, where you typically you know
Speaker 1: sell to, and who is your customer.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so, we have actually been around since two thousand
Speaker 3: and seven, and we are smaller, and in fact, we
Speaker 3: kind of like that a lot, Carol, that we are smaller.
Speaker 3: You mentioned it. There's four ships. They each hold about
Speaker 3: seven hundred guests, and we love that because it's a
Speaker 3: much more personal and intimate experience, and we go all
Speaker 3: over the world. In the summertime, we actually have all
Speaker 3: four of our ships in Europe because there's so much
Speaker 3: demand in the europe marketplace, whether you're doing a country
Speaker 3: intensive in Spain or Italy or Greece, we have those,
Speaker 3: and then we actually branch out and do things like
Speaker 3: Africa and South America and you know some of those places.
Speaker 3: Japan is really hot and we have cruises that go
Speaker 3: all through that region and so what we yeah, is
Speaker 3: it currency, is it?
Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 2: Everybody's going everybody's going to Sebastian just back from Japan. Now,
Speaker 2: Elizabeth's back from Japan. Like our whole team is going
Speaker 2: to Japan. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well it's it's funny because it definitely is hot and
Speaker 3: there's no question and you can see that because y'all
Speaker 3: are living in as well. I think it was because
Speaker 3: you know, it was the last to come back after
Speaker 3: the pandemic and so there's pent up demand and that's
Speaker 3: why we have so much of our cruising going there
Speaker 3: because just like y'all are seeing, it's the same and
Speaker 3: you know, the demographics that want to take in Asimar
Speaker 3: cruise and really get immersed like when you go to Japan.
Speaker 3: You may go to one destination and say for five
Speaker 3: or six days. What we do is we let you
Speaker 3: go in for a full day or maybe even two days,
Speaker 3: because we do a lot of overnights where other cruise
Speaker 3: lines don't, and then we let you go experience another
Speaker 3: part of it. And that's what's really special about the
Speaker 3: Asmar brand. We really get immersed in the destination.
Speaker 2: Hey, Dondra, if demand is so high right now, why
Speaker 2: do you only have four ships?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we are owned by Sycamore, which is
Speaker 3: a private equity firm out of New York, and we
Speaker 3: very much have discussions with them ongoing and growing our
Speaker 3: beautiful company because we would like to get three four
Speaker 3: more ships so that we can go in even more
Speaker 3: places and take our guests around the world. But that's
Speaker 3: where we are today, and we're going to keep being
Speaker 3: successful in the marketplace and growing the business and using
Speaker 3: our travel advisors, which really a huge distribution channel to us.
Speaker 3: And then as we grow, I suspect that our private
Speaker 3: equity firm will allow us to grow by getting new builds.
Speaker 2: Well, give us an idea. We're you know, we're not
Speaker 2: in the cruise business, and I don't think many of
Speaker 2: our listeners and viewers are. So how much does it
Speaker 2: cost to build one of these ships? And what would
Speaker 2: be the lead time that you would need from ordering
Speaker 2: it to when it's actually delivered.
Speaker 3: Well, it's usually about an eighteen to twenty month in advance.
Speaker 3: Like you go in and you secured the shipyard, and
Speaker 3: then you know, it takes a while because we have
Speaker 3: to design them, we have to then make sure that
Speaker 3: they're built safely, and so it really does take a
Speaker 3: little bit. And you know, as far as how much
Speaker 3: it costs, I don't know how much it would cost
Speaker 3: for our ships because I came from my decade in
Speaker 3: the business that you mentioned earlier. We had much bigger ships,
Speaker 3: and so I wouldn't want to give the price for
Speaker 3: those because it won't cost us much.
Speaker 2: We're talking tens of millions or hundreds of millions.
Speaker 3: Hundreds of millions.
Speaker 1: They're still big. There's still big ships, So go back.
Speaker 3: It's a big ticket item.
Speaker 1: Listen. I was, you know, playing around on the website
Speaker 1: and looking at you know, two people for twelve nights
Speaker 1: in the Caribbean. It looks like it could cost five
Speaker 1: six seven, Like you can go up the tier. Give
Speaker 1: us a range of the costs of taking like a
Speaker 1: twelve night cruise to the Eastern Caribbean.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's funny. The Caribbean is definitely a
Speaker 3: place that we go, but those are actually the less
Speaker 3: expensive cruising because there's so much capacity that goes into
Speaker 3: the Caribbean market and we do it very differently than
Speaker 3: any of the competitors in that marketplace. But you could
Speaker 3: go anywhere from you know, we have different cabin categories,
Speaker 3: our suites, which are the ones that sell the you
Speaker 3: know first, actually are you know anywhere from ten thousand
Speaker 3: and then we have a few of the of the
Speaker 3: balcony cabins that you talked about earlier, Carol, that you
Speaker 3: could get for five six thousand per person. So there's
Speaker 3: really something for everybody. But our guests have a tendency
Speaker 3: to want to buy the suite and then that sells
Speaker 3: out first, and then we sail down from there, and.
Speaker 1: Are you sold out? Like, give us an idea, Just
Speaker 1: remind us again, Like Carnival talked about record bookings and
Speaker 1: the outlook and talked about pricing power, so go there again, Like,
Speaker 1: in terms of your bookings, what are you seeing for
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. What are you seeing in terms of pricing?
Speaker 3: We are definitely in a rising price environment, and in
Speaker 3: our environment, when you start to hit your targets both
Speaker 3: from a booking and the yields that you're seeing, then
Speaker 3: you start to raise your prices, right, and so we
Speaker 3: are definitely right on target for twenty four and honestly,
Speaker 3: twenty five is actually showing some tremendous growth. We're you know,
Speaker 3: thirty three percent ahead of where we were the same
Speaker 3: time last year, which is you know, this year. Because
Speaker 3: we have a tendency in the cruise business and particularly
Speaker 3: at Asmar Cruises, we pooked pretty far in advance, and
Speaker 3: so we're really in the prime booking window for twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five right now.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Okay, hey, give us an idea of You talked
Speaker 2: a little bit about your customer, but I'm wondering about
Speaker 2: the demographic profile of them. Some cruise companies like to
Speaker 2: appeal to families and bringing sort of multi generations on longer,
Speaker 2: longer cruises tend to attract those who are retired because
Speaker 2: they don't need to worry about taking so much vacation.
Speaker 2: Where are you?
Speaker 3: So you know, it's funny because it's two things from
Speaker 3: an age perspect you know, right in that fifty to
Speaker 3: fifty five is the sweet spot for us. But it's
Speaker 3: not just people that are retired. In fact, there's a
Speaker 3: lot of guests that actually really want to go on
Speaker 3: and Asimar Cruise because they've tried other cruise lines and
Speaker 3: they know they like cruising, but they really want to
Speaker 3: get into this global destination immersion and what does that mean. Right,
Speaker 3: So we will get to a beautiful place like Sicily,
Speaker 3: and we will get in at eight o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 3: we won't leave until the next day at five, right,
Speaker 3: not the same day at five. So what happens is
Speaker 3: we have a tendency to get the cruisers who want
Speaker 3: something that's more immersive, and not just those are retired.
Speaker 3: But our sweet spot is definitely in that age demographics.
Speaker 3: And while we certainly accommodate families, that's not our target.
Speaker 1: All right, Dondra, really appreciate getting some time with you.
Speaker 1: Dondra Ritzenaler, she is the CEO of Asamara Cruz is
Speaker 1: joining us on this Friday.
Speaker 2: Well, our next guest writes about a worrisome trend in
Speaker 2: the C suite women lost about a sixty season sweet
Speaker 2: roles at SMP Global Total Market Index Companies in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three. Carol, it's the first time the number of
Speaker 2: female execs at the very highest level of business dropped
Speaker 2: during the almost twenty year period tracked by SMP Global
Speaker 2: Market Intelligence.
Speaker 1: No I thought we were making progress. So what exactly
Speaker 1: is going on? Bethcoh It is a Bloomberg Opinion senior
Speaker 1: columnist and in the new issue Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine, the
Speaker 1: new monthly issue, she writes about the declining numbers of
Speaker 1: female executives at a time when the political right is
Speaker 1: blasting d EI efforts. She joins us from New York City.
Speaker 1: As we mentioned, featured this story in the new issue
Speaker 1: Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine that's on newsstands, online and on the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Term.
Speaker 2: So, Beth, what's going on here? Because you open talking
Speaker 2: about Rosbrewer over at all Walgreens Boots Alliance, and she
Speaker 2: was out after twenty twenty, just a couple of years
Speaker 2: after starting. We all saw what happened yesterday the company stock,
Speaker 2: but it was sort of a long time coming. You
Speaker 2: use that as sort of like the lead in to
Speaker 2: explain what's happening at these companies.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, you know, it's really interesting you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 4: I picked up on just sort of an alarming set
Speaker 4: of stats. Progress really seems to be backtracking. And ros
Speaker 4: Brewer at Walgreens was a great example of that. When
Speaker 4: she became CEO of the company, she was a record
Speaker 4: number of Fortune five hundred CEOs she was when she
Speaker 4: was named CEO, she was the only black female running
Speaker 4: of Fortune five hundred company at the time, So, you know,
Speaker 4: it really felt like progress. It was celebrated by Corporate America,
Speaker 4: and then less than two and a half years later
Speaker 4: she was out. And you know, I think that this is,
Speaker 4: as you said, one of sixty C suite women who
Speaker 4: had lost a job. So I do think it really
Speaker 4: feels like a decline in a very painful way.
Speaker 1: All right, Beth, So tell us about this stall gender revolution.
Speaker 1: What's going on? Because it does feel like for years, right,
Speaker 1: we've talked about diversity, equity, inclusion, and you know, SPECIF
Speaker 1: focused on a lot of aspects of that, but in
Speaker 1: particular the gaps that were between men and women, and
Speaker 1: it looked like companies were sensitive about it. They were
Speaker 1: publishing data. Why are we now an installed gender revolution.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so, as you mentioned, you know in the piece,
Speaker 4: I say, I think that we've always seen progress and
Speaker 4: stalls and backlashes, and right now we are definitely in
Speaker 4: a stall. And I think a big part of that
Speaker 4: is the climate. Right now. We were in a period
Speaker 4: where people really did care about trying to increase diversity
Speaker 4: within their organizations, and now, for a number of reasons,
Speaker 4: they're afraid to do that, they're afraid to talk about it,
Speaker 4: and I think that has changed the environment. So we
Speaker 4: would recognize we used to recognize the just the last
Speaker 4: couple of years, we started to recognize these hurdles that
Speaker 4: women faced in the workplace, and now I think that
Speaker 4: it's I had a professor tell me it's okay to
Speaker 4: discriminate against women again, and I think that's that's a
Speaker 4: huge part of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're quoting Aaron Read, a professor at McMaster University's
Speaker 2: Business School who studies gender in the workplace. You you
Speaker 2: reference bet the idea that potentially and you write about
Speaker 2: it in the piece that Elon Musk and Bill Ackman.
Speaker 2: You write that they've ratcheted up the rhetoric with post
Speaker 2: on social media, claiming DEI is racist and illegal. We've
Speaker 2: done a lot of reporting around sort of the corporate
Speaker 2: backlash to DEI. But one name in here that you
Speaker 2: do call out as not sort of being in that
Speaker 2: on that same page as Jamie Diamond over at JP
Speaker 2: Morgan Chase. What is he doing?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he puts out an annual letter every year,
Speaker 4: and in it he dedicated this year quite a bit
Speaker 4: of space. The letter itself was quite long, and in
Speaker 4: it he dedicates a good amount of space to talking
Speaker 4: about why DEI is important to the company, to business.
Speaker 4: And I don't think it's a coincidence that we have
Speaker 4: seen now two of his potentials sessors are women in
Speaker 4: an industry that is predominantly white, is predominantly male. You know,
Speaker 4: I think if you create an environment where women want
Speaker 4: to work, they'll come work for you. And I do
Speaker 4: think that elsewhere we've seen women leave roles at companies
Speaker 4: that have been less supportive. So I think that this
Speaker 4: is a great example of what can happen when companies
Speaker 4: walk the.
Speaker 1: Walk, when they do right, when they actually walk.
Speaker 4: In when they do yeah, when they do have absolutely.
Speaker 1: Having said that, going back to Rosalind Brewer at Walgreens
Speaker 1: Boots Alliance and her short tenure there. You know, I
Speaker 1: am curious in reporting this out that she inherited a
Speaker 1: company with issues and problems and it doesn't seem like necessarily.
Speaker 2: There's a term for that, right, What do you keep
Speaker 2: forgetting what that is? It was the glass cliff, Yes,
Speaker 2: the glass cliff, okay, And we spoke about it with
Speaker 2: one of our guests a few weeks ago and she
Speaker 2: said that often women are brought in in these cases.
Speaker 1: Like in a bad situation. Yeah, yeah, no, no go there,
Speaker 1: Like it's just an interesting the comparison between men being
Speaker 1: brought in to deal with a difficult situation how much
Speaker 1: time they're given to fix it versus a woman. Are
Speaker 1: we seeing really a gap in that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I mean I think there's two things. One is
Speaker 4: that women in general tend to get the top job
Speaker 4: in these glass clip situations where they were brought into
Speaker 4: a struggling company and expected to turn things around. And
Speaker 4: we've also seen in the numbers that they're not given
Speaker 4: as much time. The length of tenure is significantly shorter
Speaker 4: for female CEOs than it is for male CEOs. And
Speaker 4: you know, in ros Browse case, she was not really
Speaker 4: given the time or the authority, right, she had her
Speaker 4: the previous CEO was still very present, largest shareholder. You know.
Speaker 4: When she took the job, they said they really liked
Speaker 4: her retail and digital experience, and when she left, they said, oh,
Speaker 4: they really actually wanted someone with more healthcare experience. They
Speaker 4: knew that going in that that was her expertise. I
Speaker 4: don't that's not her fault, and so I just think
Speaker 4: in general, it's pretty it's typical that when women do
Speaker 4: get these big jobs, it is often at these companies
Speaker 4: that are really hard turnaround situations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm thinking of Mary Dylan over at foot Locker.
Speaker 2: She's somebody who was brought into turnaround foot Locker and
Speaker 2: she's only been there for a short time. But yeah,
Speaker 2: go ahead, Carl.
Speaker 1: So no, no, no, hey, Beth, we only have about
Speaker 1: forty five seconds left here. So now what? So what's next?
Speaker 1: Is there?
Speaker 3: Now? What? Right?
Speaker 4: That's the question? I mean one I'll leave you with
Speaker 4: sort of an optimistic note, and that is I think
Speaker 4: that the last couple of years have shown women what
Speaker 4: is possible when their companies do recognize these hurdles that
Speaker 4: they face. And I think now women are not willing
Speaker 4: to go back, and they're going to leave companies that
Speaker 4: don't support them. They've just seen the other side of it,
Speaker 4: and you know, I think that that is maybe one
Speaker 4: little ray of hope that we can take for this.
Speaker 1: I like that. Yeah, I was thinking of Sorry, I
Speaker 1: was actually quoting what's the network movie quote like a
Speaker 1: I'm I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take
Speaker 1: it anymore. Thank you, Paul Brennan. But that's what I
Speaker 1: was thinking for Beth, right, Like, that's how we finish, right,
Speaker 1: I'm mad as hell, I'm not gonna take it anymore,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna like just settle for not getting
Speaker 1: to the top, Beth. Great story, Beth Cohen, Senior Columns
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg Opinion. That is in the new monthly edition
Speaker 1: of Bloomberg Business Week, which is out on newsstands now,
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg and at Bloomberg dot com. And a
Speaker 1: great preview in our weekend show coming your way tomorrow.
Speaker 2: You're not gonna forget that time for a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm mad as hell. It's a great quote. This
Speaker 1: is Blueberg