Interview: Pat Molloy
Talking cruise retail with Harding+’s Pat Molloy
As The Moodie Davitt Report builds towards the retail sessions at Seatrade Cruise Global – the world’s largest gathering of the cruise industry – in Miami this April, we profile senior industry executives from the maritime sector. Here, US-based Harding+ Senior Vice President Client and New Business Development Pat Molloy talks about his start in the sector, the changes he has seen and what excites him about the next stage for the company and the industry.
The Moodie Davitt Report: Pat, can you tell us more about your day-to-day role at Harding+ in Miami?
Pat Molloy: As part of the Harding+ business transformation strategy last year, we created a dedicated Client and Business Development function. A large part of my role since then has been about leading this team and ensuring we have the right experiences, perspectives and breadth needed in the business to support our cruise line partners in the ways they need, and the ways we can positively surprise them. We have a strong group of Client Directors in place, with broad skills gathered from across the luxury and travel retail spheres.
The Client team has effectively become the listening post for our cruise line partners – their voice for us internally – alongside improving our ability to share clear, informed perspectives of all that the business is doing and can bring to shared goals.
Alongside leading that team and strategy, I spend time looking at new opportunities and how we can continue to grow our role in the industry and share our value. There’s a lot in motion, and more to come.
You have been in travel retail for many years, but what drew you to cruise retail and to Harding+ especially?
I was a 20-year-old back in Ireland, with no big plans other than a yearning to travel and I landed an opportunity to work on a cruise ship in Miami in 1996.
One contract became six years and I had the amazing chance to travel extensively with my then girlfriend, now wife Diane. We spent our last three years onboard Silversea, running luxury boutiques and opened the Silver Shadow and Silver Whisper in Genoa, Italy in 2000 and 2001.
After leaving shipboard life I went to work for ARI (Aer Rianta International) in various airports across the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. By then our son Mario had come along, and we thought it might be a good time to relocate back to the UK with Harding+. It felt like a natural return to cruise retail, but with the benefit I had gained of broader global retail experience.
According to Harding+ Senior Vice President Client and New Business Development Pat Molloy, cruise retail success increasingly hinges on understanding guest mindset and moment, supported by data-led insight and experience-driven innovation
Building retail around mood, mindset and moment; Ray-Ban virtual try-on tool pictured
Harding+ is focused on improving the day-to-day guest experience onboard ships
As Harding+ celebrates ten years in Miami this year, what are your highlights from that period?
I became closely involved with our Miami office in the summer of 2016, soon after it opened. A huge amount has obviously changed since then, but all the investment has paid off. The depth of experience we now have has strengthened trust with partners, enabled smoother transitions onto new ships and helped the business win some amazing contracts.
One of the highlights for me has been working alongside colleagues in the USA who have been part of that journey almost from the start – Carnival Client and New Business Director Justine Dykes, Global Visual Merchandising Manager Sam Moss and District Field Managers Gary Van Der Merwe and Scott Mitchell. We’ve all learned a lot, and only aged ever so slightly in the process.
I’m particularly proud of how well the business supported shipboard colleagues during the pandemic. Repatriation was complex, and our HR teams did an outstanding job, but what stood out was the human connection. Teams stayed in close contact with plenty of virtual sessions to keep people connected during a very difficult period.
Business wise, retaining and extending the Carnival Cruise Line contract in 2018 was a massive win for us, as it validated all the work everyone at Harding+ had put into the contract. Since then, extending that partnership has been a strong reflection of how we work.
Post-pandemic, we had a big win with Princess Cruise Lines. Every operator in our channel went after that contract aggressively, so to win that was really special for everyone involved. It was a rapid transition but intense projects that need to be delivered on-time and on-budget always bring out the best in Harding+. When the adrenaline is flowing and everyone is pulling in the same direction, our fleet of foot approach delivers every time, and the Miami team played a central role in making this work globally.
Harding+ research shows that 92% of guests intend to shop at sea, and 87% say onboard storytelling influences purchasing
Blending physical and digital across the guest experience, with engravings an opportunity to personalise purchases
What’s the biggest change you have seen in that time – both in Miami and in the cruise industry overall?
The biggest shift has been in how cruise retail is perceived by the wider vendor community. Early engagement levels were surprisingly low compared to airport retail, where competition for space is relentless.
That shifted post-pandemic as brands searched for growth channels that hadn’t stagnated. Since then, we’ve worked hard to showcase the scale of the opportunity through ship visits, brand days and our vendor open house programme, and the depth of understanding is improving on our undeniable stand-out channel strengths.
More broadly, there is genuinely a cruise option for everyone now, from ultra-luxury to family-focused experiences. The ships we serve have become destinations in their own right. That’s great for innovation and for opening up opportunities for many more brand partners to share in the wins we can offer, and as everyone in cruise can see, there is still significant room for growth.
In the USA 720 million vacations took place in 2025, but only 19 million Americans took a cruise. That alone is a growth sector worth fighting for.
I’m also proud of my appointment to the IAADFS board to give cruise retail a bigger voice in the industry, something that would have been much harder to see happening pre-pandemic. So let’s keep the positive changes coming.
Over the last decade, how has the Miami team helped Harding+ stay close to changing passenger expectations globally?
There’s no substitute for being onboard to keep us close to our teams, our operation and our guests. You see immediately what works, what doesn’t and what activations resonate. And that fits with our business priority of being the retailer that wants to make things happen onboard first.
Our Miami team has been key here in understanding the wants and needs of the North American guest to see that all we do is engaging, real-world informed and data-supported.
One impressive innovation is the wider colleague sailing programme. With many new team members joining from outside cruise, immersive onboard experiences quickly built empathy and practical insight, led by our CEO Chris Matthews, who went ‘undercover’ to capture the most authentic learnings. It helped shoreside teams understand shipboard realities and vice versa in a way no desk briefing ever could.
“Cruise retail doesn’t need to look the same across every ship. Right product, right ship, right guest is now central to how we think nimbly.”
Can you tell us something about working in cruise retail that would surprise people who only see it from the outside, and how does your Miami base play into that reality?
People are often surprised that our shipboard teams live and work onboard for around six months at a time. Cruise retail is genuinely ‘always on’, far removed from a typical Monday-to-Friday model.
Miami plays a critical role in supporting that intensity. Our most effective leaders understand the demands quickly and make themselves available accordingly, while still working hard to maintain balance.
What excites you most about where the business is heading next?
The future is very bright. Over the past decade we’ve navigated enormous changes. Seeing the introduction of new people, processes and technological firsts and how they have quickly embedded and landed results is powerful. We have strengthened the business at every level, with the confidence shown by our partners through extended contracts reflecting that progress.
What excites me most is our increasingly segmented approach. Cruise retail doesn’t need to look the same across every ship. Right product, right ship, right guest is now central to how we think nimbly. Keeping assortments fresh, differentiated and hyper-relevant is something our commercial team prioritise, supported by the most accurate data sets in the industry.
Ultimately, that’s how we can grow: securing longer partnerships, delivering stronger performance and providing our guests with head-turning products, engaging activations and exceptional value on every cruise. Partnership is about being bespoke, and that’s what we are increasingly driven by.
Guests increasingly value experience over transaction – at sea, this dynamic is amplified
Partner’s message
Partner’s message
The Moodie Davitt eZine
Issue 350 | 09 February 2026
The Moodie Davitt eZine is published 6 times per year by The Moodie Davitt Report (MA Travel Retail). © All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Publisher. To find out more visit www.moodiedavittreport.com and to subscribe, please email kristyn@moodiedavittreport.com