10 KEYNOTE TUI Cruises is building a new class of ships packed with onboard innovations, investing in advanced technologies to decarbonise operations, and championing the cruise sector as an industrial asset in Europe. CEO Wybcke Meier tells Rebecca Gibson more While growing up on Helgoland, a small archipelago in the North Sea off the coast of Germany, Wybcke Meier often had to take the ferry to the mainland. However, her brief experiences of life at sea were far from positive. “The sea was often very rough, so I didn’t enjoy the trips,” she says. “As a child, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to go sailing or work at sea.” Today, her perspective has changed significantly – she is now CEO of Germanybased TUI Cruises, a joint venture between TUI Group and Royal Caribbean Group that operates eight premium cruise vessels. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, which operates two luxury and three expedition ships, has also been been part of TUI Cruises since 2020. “Although I didn’t enjoy ferry trips, I loved travelling and began my career in the tourism industry,” says Meier. “Cruising became more popular in Germany in the early 2000s when the market was launching lots of new ships, and I could see how it might be an exciting way to see the world. I also found it very interesting that cruise lines could take a holistic approach to designing a holiday experience from A to Z and create a full product for their guests. In the following years, I had a few positive experiences in the cruise industry, so when I was approached about the CEO role by TUI Cruises during the ITB Berlin travel fair in 2014, I decided to take on the challenge.” Not long after joining TUI Cruises, Meier embarked on one of the brand’s metal music-themed voyages and saw firsthand the positive impact a holistically designed holiday experience has on guests. “Metal and hard rock aren’t my favourite music genres so I wasn’t sure I would enjoy myself, but it was amazing,” she says. “Everybody was so happy to be onboard the ship and having fun together across the ship. It was funny to see big groups of guests dressed in black leather and metal t-shirts getting off the ship to explore cultural sites in destinations like Barcelona and Lisbon. It’s a special memory.” Meier and her team continue to curate memorable experiences for guests sailing on all TUI Cruises ships, including its two new InTUItion-class vessels, Mein Schiff Relax and Mein Schiff Flow. At 333 metres and 160,000gt, the InTUItion ships are the brand’s largest-ever vessels and can accommodate up to 3,984 guests and around 1,400 crew members. In a break from tradition, they were ordered from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, rather than TUI Cruises’ long-term partner Meyer Turku, which constructed the first seven ships in the Mein Schiff fleet at its yard in Finland. Mein Schiff Relax began service in the Mediterranean in April 2025, while Mein Schiff Flow is set to debut in mid-2026. TUI Cruises’ objective for the InTUItionclass was to create “intuitively explorable Raising the bar
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