Over-50s have had enough of sitting in their homes and are keen to go cruising again – but they are “writing off 2020”, according to the boss of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, managing director Peter Deer said forward bookings were strong – defying expectations that mature travellers may be cautious about returning to travel.
“You would think that with the advice given by the government about the plus-50s, that there’s a concern about travelling, particularly if you’ve got underlying health conditions. But we’re not seeing that at all,” he said.
“We’re actually seeing that our guests want to go cruising and they are saying ‘we’ve had enough of sitting in our homes, we’re fed up with this and we kind of accept that life has got to move on’.”
Deer added: “We’ve seen our bookings being really strong, particularly for next year. I think most people are thinking that 2020 is a bit of a write-off really from a travel perspective. So they’re saying ‘Let’s not focus on this year, let’s use the monies which we may have, to spoil ourselves on home things, whether that might be refurbishing the home, or taking a staycation or something like that.
“But next year, they’re saying we definitely want to go cruising. They think by then, everything will be more resolved and cruise lines would have got their structures and their process in place, which will give them confidence to come back on board with us.”
Deer said that while demand was strong, it was predominantly for cruises closer to home.
“We’re finding holidays which are closer to home are definitely the ones our customers been focused on. So, if I go back one or two months before we’d cancelled some of our more exotic cruises, the cruises which were being booked at that stage were Scottish Island cruises, around the UK, five-night cruises to Norway, to Northern Europe, some to Southern Europe, but not any more than cruises of 10 to 14 days. So they felt as though their comfort zone was really that European base and not extending it any further,” he said.
“Ten nights and fewer has been slightly more popular. Our guests are thinking ‘if I go for that length of time, if there is a problem, then we’re not very far from home. We’re probably, in reality, three or four sailing days from home’. I think that’s their thinking; their philosophy behind that. We’re not saying that to them, but I think that’s what they’re thinking themselves.”
Deer said insurance was a major issue for the over-50s, with some problems resolved but not all.
“I think to start, when the insurance companies clamped up and said Covid is excluded, that was a major problem to any travel business, particularly cruise because we insist you should have a cruise travel insurance before you cruise with us,” he said.
“But a lot of the cruise policies, including the ones which we’re involved with, are opening up and have Covid clauses which are now covered. Initially that was just covering if you become medically ill with Covid when you’re way and now it’s all about if you have to cancel in advance of your current cruise.”
Deer added that he thought premiums would get cheaper.
“I think, because they’re covering Covid, there is an additional premium, which our customers are having to pay. And I think that’s something which will probably become more competitive, more refined over a period of time,” he said.
“So the premium will find a fair and level playing field. In time, as the underwriters really understand what the risk is behind this; and what their loss ratios are, they can say, ‘well actually, we don’t need to have X premium, we can lower it to Y premium’.
