Royal Caribbean Group chief says booking volumes already ‘in great place’ for 2027

Royal Caribbean Group’s chief executive has said the company is already seeing “very strong demand” and booking volumes for 2027 at higher prices.

This comes as the cruise giant, which is the parent of Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea, reported a better-than-expected performance in its second-quarter earnings.

Speaking on the group’s earnings call, chief executive Jason Liberty said: “We are only in July, so it is early, but we have seen very strong demand for 2027 at very, very high volumes. 

“Booking volumes are in a great place and, of course we’re trying to optimise our yield and not just be better than historical levels, so we feel very good about our booked position.”

Speaking more about 2027, he said there were “a lot of tailwinds” from bringing new products and destinations online, including Legend of the Seas and Celebrity River Cruises, but he insisted the group did “not plan for perfection”.

Chief financial officer Nafthali Holtz added: “It is early, but we are booked very well and at higher prices, so we feel pretty good about next year.”

On wider booking trends, Liberty said late demand had been “higher than expected” for the past three to four years and “continues to elevate” despite limited inventory.

He said: “We have made it a lot easier to book closer in [to departure date] than in the past and our guests appreciate flexibility and optionality.”

Liberty said that capturing demand close to departure 10 years ago would have “typically” required discounting, but today the business is able to increase pricing instead which it is “happy to harvest”.

However, he acknowledged the ongoing Middle East conflict had “modestly weighed on bookings for some of our deployment in the near term”, primarily in Europe in the third quarter.

Liberty said that without the headwinds from the conflict, the group would have been able to raise its yield guidance for the year, adding: “Europe was off to an incredible start at the beginning of the year but the results of geopolitical activity and the impact on fuel did curtail demand to a degree.

“That’s not to say European yields are down as they are still very good, but they are less than what we had expected.”