The cost of cruising needs to increase over the next couple of years so cruiselines can recover some of their investment, Royal Caribbean Cruises vice-president and managing director UK and Ireland Robin Shaw has said.
Shaw told the Cruise Forum at the Travel Convention in Barcelona on Thursday there have been “double-digit” discounts by the cruiselines this year to help the industry get through the recession.
He said: “We had to get the ships full, but with 5%, 10%, even 15% increase in prices, cruising would still be amazing value.”
GfK Ascent MI managing director Sarah Smalley said while the rest of the travel market is having a tough time, cruise bookings this year are up a “phenomenal” 29%.
She said: “People are not necessarily choosing the cheapest cruise, but the one they think offers the best value. For 2010, the average cruise price is more than £1,600.”
P&O Cruises managing director Carol Marlow said Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) figures for 2008 showed cruise passengers spent an average £135 a day, while the average price of a cruise was £1,404 per person. The average cruise was 10.4 days.
She said: “That’s not an insignificant amount of money but people are still seeing it as value.”
She said the keen prices on offer from the cruiselines this year coupled with record levels of satisfaction from P&O Cruises passengers means people have been getting even better value. “It’s too early to know what’s happening in 2009, but I think we will see that the average price and duration is down.”
Marlow said the financial crisis had made value for money more important for consumers, who rated it as the fifth reason why people like to cruise in a YouGov survey commissioned last year by the cruiseline to try to understand how to develop the market.
She said value for money had appeared further down the list in previous surveys. The quality of food and service were at numbers one and two respectively.