Business (Holland America Line’s world)

We interviewed stakeholders across and around the business, from management roles, to those that worked on board, from customer service, to third party representatives (such as Flight Centre). These confidential interviews the current pressures on HAL itself (as well as the larger industry issue), the opportunities as they saw them, what makes HAL unique and brilliant, the role they believe it plays ( or should play) in people’s, frustrations and fear, hopes and desires. Each interview was concluded with ‘if you could be CEO for a day and had a free rein, (and budget no issue) what would you do’? The passion and depth of practical, creative and future-focussed ideas that emerged from these interviews not onlt fed this project but helped initiate a number of other streams!

Human (real-world customers)

We held a number of qualitative research groups across those that ‘active cruisers’, ‘lapsed cruisers’ and ‘cruise curious’. We wanted to understand what appeal this particular genre held, whether this was universal across all groups, and why choose HAL especially. We questioned what was holding people back from ‘giving it a go’ (perceptions), and what people feared for. We questioned the role of travel more broadly, the role it played across age and demographics and used workshop techniques to encourage participants to blue-sky ideate what the HAL experience of the future could look like, and why.

Environment (big wide world)

The macro research focussed initially on how Covid shook the Australian Cruise industry to the core, with infections onboard gaining extensive media attention. For an industry that positions itself as a safe and enjoyable way to travel, and with many of its’ clients often being older and more medically vulnerable we needed a complete understanding of the medical, social and cultural factors. Australian and international studies and statistics were reviewed to help us understand what Cruise was being ‘switched out for’ and why. We also looked at the psychological factors that arose through Covid and the human emotional and physical needs that now existed in society. This extensive documentation, media and socio study helped us understand the macro cultural situation we needed to navigate

The gap

This is a snapshot of the insights identified through the research process. This project was so timely, and informative that we actually provided several ‘gap’ iterations for the client to create ongoing internal workstreams as desired!