Virgin Voyages emerges from the pandemic with two buzzy ships and an enormous bankroll.
Virgin Voyages
Less than a 12 months after launching, Richard Branson’s Miami-based premium cruise line Virgin Voyages introduced on Wednesday that it has closed on $550 million in new funding from the funding administration agency BlackRock, with extra assist from its current joint-venture companions Virgin Group and Bain Capital Non-public Fairness in addition to different backers.
The brand new funding will allow the fledgling cruise line to execute on its progress technique as demand for cruising good points momentum and the business loosens Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, the corporate mentioned in an announcement.
“We now have created an unbelievable product that each our buyers and customers actually imagine in, and this extra capital comes at a time once we’re wanting ahead to exponential progress that can, in flip, assist us obtain what we got down to accomplish,” mentioned Virgin Voyages CEO Tom McAlpin, a seasoned cruise govt whose lengthy profession contains stints as chief monetary officer and president of Disney Cruise Line and as chief govt at The World, a non-public residential cruise ship operated like a condominium advanced, with spacious staterooms that may be bought.
In a really quick time, Virgin Voyages has made fairly a splash within the cruise business with its adults-only, no-buffet sailings and steep-but-inclusive pricing that features table-service eating, Wi-Fi and health lessons — facilities that each one however a couple of luxurious cruise traces cost further for.
“Virgin Voyages has efficiently launched a brand new model within the cruise business and confirmed its attraction to each the normal and non-traditional cruiser, permitting the model to faucet into new markets and re-imagine this journey class,” mentioned Ryan Cotton, a managing director at Bain Capital.
Since its launch in August 2021, Virgin Voyages’ two 2,700-passenger ships — Scarlet Girl, crusing within the Caribbean, and Valiant Girl, which plies the Mediterranean — have snagged Cruise Critic’s “Finest New Cruise Ship” title, landed on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2022 Cruising “Scorching Checklist,” and had been named a high ocean cruise line in Journey + Leisure’s World’s Finest Awards.
“Regardless of the unprecedented challenges the cruise sector has confronted previously few years, the business is exhibiting a robust rebound,” mentioned Brendan Galloway, director in BlackRock World Credit score.
He’s proper about that. Cruising, which was decimated through the first two years of the pandemic, has been firing on all cylinders. This 12 months, passenger quantity will hit 95% of 2019 quantity, and is predicted to surpass pre-pandemic ranges in 2023, in accordance with an annual industry report from Cruise Strains Worldwide Affiliation.
Final month, Virgin Voyages turned the primary cruise line to cease requiring passengers to get examined earlier than embarking on a crusing, although it nonetheless requires 90% of passengers and all of its crew members to be vaccinated.
Virgin will quickly double its fleet with two extra ships — Resilient Girl and Good Girl — debuting in 2023.
