The demand for cruises has been a bit shaky over the past few years. While it has generally remained high despite the pandemic, it has had low periods recently. Thankfully, a myriad of factors are combining to bring demand for cruises up once again. Both Royal Caribbean and Carnival have been reporting high booking numbers, signalling a bright future for the cruise industry.
On April 4th, 2022, Carnival released some very exciting news: they had broken single-week booking numbers at the end of March. During the week of March 28th to April 3rd, the iconic cruise line saw more bookings than they ever had before. For the most part, Carnival contributed this success to the general reawakening of the industry. In a statement, the president of Carnival cited “the excitement of the industry’s restart, our successful return of our entire fleet,” and a few other factors as being the driving reasons. According to Cruise Industry News, their new record-shattering week showed “a double-digit increase from the previous record seven-day booking total.”
Similarly, Royal Caribbean also recently broke personal booking records. In fact, they broke two! March 26th to April 1st was their busiest booking week of all time, and one of the days within that week was also their single most successful day ever. Michael Bayley, the CEO and president of the cruise line, spoke about the exciting news during a press release on April 8th. “The enthusiasm and excitement for the successful return of cruising is undeniable. We could not have reached this incredible milestone without the unwavering support of our loyal guests, our valued travel advisors and partners, and the Royal Caribbean International team around the world,” he said.
This is great news for both Royal and Carnival, and one can assume that this same level of demand is being seen throughout the entire industry. Of course, whether this trend continues or not largely depends on the COVID-19 situation. Historically, large waves of infections have resulted in tighter restrictions on cruise ships, and that led to lower interest in cruise travel. The CDC has now lowered their cruise warning, though, and the current situation is looking very optimistic.
Could things change drastically in the next few months and tip the industry back on its head? It is possible. But there is enough momentum behind cruising right now that heavy restrictions would likely need to be put into place to slow the excitement. We’ll have to wait and see how the spring and summer seasons play out.
