Cruise lines have had “a fantastic year” but need to do more around overtourism, marketing and modernisation to continue growth, a panel of senior leaders said.
Speaking at the annual Clia Forum, Steven Spivak, Tauck vice-president of global sales, was bullish about cruise’s growth in 2024 telling delegates that its river cruise line had had “another incredible year”.
He added: “There is strength in travel in every destination around the world. Every single destination has come roaring back and we’re seeing unprecedented strength globally.”
Giles Hawke, Celebrity Cruises vice-president and managing director for the UK, Ireland and EMEA, echoed this sentiment as he said: “Cruise is hitting this really sweet spot at the moment.
“We’ve got amazing brands and products, we look after our customers, we deliver exceptional holidays as an industry and we’re on the crest of a really good wave and cruise is going to keep doing really well in the future.”
He added it had been a record-breaking year for Celebrity Cruises and “a fantastic year” for Royal Caribbean and Silversea in all markets.
Samantha Stimpson, Fred Olsen Cruise Lines chief executive, revealed the line achieved double-digit growth and had its best year in terms of occupancy for seven or eight years.
“A huge part of our growth has come from working with all you guys in the trade which has been fantastic, so thank you,” she added.
Christian Verhounig, Ambassador Cruise Line chief executive, described 2024 as “a year of changes” as it was the company’s first year with two ships sailing.
Despite high cost of living pressures in the UK, he said the line’s forward booking curve was “looking extremely good” and it launched its 2026-27 itineraries six months ahead which “broke every record” from previous launches.
Looking ahead
While each cruise line had benefitted from “fantastic growth” in 2024, panellists stressed important challenges the cruise industry needed to tackle to continue growing.
Echoing what he said at the Advantage Latitude Conference earlier this year, Verhounig stressed the cruise industry was “still not strong enough” at presenting its value for money to the trade or the public.
He said: “The package holiday industry has been able to rise prices much quicker than us, for sure to do with price increases in aviation and limited capacities.
“We don’t have the same limited capacities, and we have to work very hard together to get the value for money of the cruise industry out there.”
Verhounig stressed the industry could double the market over a short space of time and needed to concentrate collectively on getting more people on board to experience what cruises have to offer.
Spivak added the “bigger challenge” for cruise was overtourism, citing examples like Amsterdam and Venice limiting or banning cruise ships.
He said Tauck had started to address this with offering “more off the beaten path itineraries”.
For Hawke, the main challenge was going after “low-hanging fruit” and getting customers to think about moving away from land-based holidays.
“There are millions and millions of customers in this country alone with the means, desire and potential to cruise and we should be looking at what the opportunities are to find more new and exciting ways to present our cruise product,” he said.
Stimpson highlighted marketing and technology were areas that were “really relevant” but “underinvested in” from the business.
“There are levels of modernisation we need to deliver,” she explained. “We’ve already started to make step changes within the brand, so the future is very exciting.”