The boss of the world’s largest cruise company believes more ships and “better pricing” suggest 2023 could be a record-breaking year for the sector.
During a Travel Weekly webcast, Carnival Corporation president, Arnold Donald, was asked whether he agreed with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings boss Frank Del Rio, who recently said next year could surpass 2019 in terms of booking volumes.
Donald said: “[2023] certainly has capability of being at [that level], assuming the destinations are open and we can sail all the ships that are out there.
“There will be more capacity in 2023 than there was in 2019 and there will generally be better pricing then there was in 2019. That adds up to record performance.”
He added: “I think that’s within reach of the industry, we’ll have to see how things evolve.”
Donald stressed the sector would continue to ensure high environmental protection standards and passengers’ health and well-being were maintained as cruise lines pursued record-breaking volumes.
He added that forward bookings for 2023 sailings and beyond were “very strong” despite this year’s peak sales period wave being delayed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We’ve now seen record booking days for Carnival and Cunard in the UK,” he said. “P&O Cruises is booking very well now.
“[Sales] were slower than we would have liked to have seen during the early wave period. Now bookings are picking up as people adapt to uncertainty or things become more certain.”
He added that current pricing was “good” and that “general philosophy” across the sector was to hold prices at their current level.
“We see robust demand for an industry that’s going to grow at a slower rate than we were growing previously because a number of ships have exited,” he explained.
“It takes a while to get the whole infrastructure up and running again. To get all the ships back.”
He added that cruise holidays offered customers “much better value” than equivalent land-based vacations.
At Carnival Corporation, Donald said there were plans to reiterate to customers how cruises offered good value for money.
Asked about future ship-building plans, Donald insisted the company would order new vessels soon.
However, he predicted there would be “a slowdown” in 2025 and 2026 as cruise companies paid back debt taken on during the pandemic.
“We want to return to the credit rating levels we had pre-Covid,” he said. “We think that’s in the best interest of the shareholder.
“But we’re going to be building ships. It’s just that, I’d say the 2025-26 period, you may see fewer new-builds than what it would have seen had this [pandemic] not occurred.”
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