Royal Caribbean Group plans to open a Royal Beach Club in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, CEO Jason Liberty said during the company’s Q3 earnings call Tuesday.
In 2019, Royal Caribbean said it planned to build a Perfect Day location on Lelepa, a Vanuatuan island off the northwest coast of the island of Efate. It is about 1,000 miles east of Australia.
Jay Schneider, chief product innovation officer for Royal Caribbean, told Travel Weekly earlier this year that Royal was committed to developing the Vanuatu destination "in some way, shape or form," but said it might not be a Perfect Day experience.
During the earnings call Tuesday, Liberty offered no specifics nor a timeline about the Vanuatu destination. He mentioned establishing a Royal Beach Club there while explaining how the company is growing its portfolio of destinations, namely with the recently announced Perfect Day Mexico.
"We're going to have the Royal Beach Clubs, one in Nassau, we're going to have one in Cozumel as well as in Vanuatu, which is in the South Pacific," Liberty said. He called the Royal Beach Clubs and Perfect Day developments "value drivers for our shareholders" that will improve yield.
Royal Caribbean announced on Oct. 9 that it would build a Perfect Day destination in Mexico. Royal Caribbean Group acquired the Costa Maya port and its surrounding land for $292 million. That sale is expected to close in the first half of 2025. Perfect Day Mexico is expected to be completed in 2027.
Perfect Day Mexico will help Royal Caribbean Group to grow in the Gulf Coast area, including in Texas, which Liberty described as having a similar-sized marketplace as Florida with a similar interest in cruising, but with only half of Florida's penetration. Royal Caribbean opened a cruise terminal in Galveston in three years ago.