Clia UK & Ireland chair Ben Bouldin has predicted cruise lines could welcome more than two million UK cruise passengers on their ships next year.
At the trade association’s 2022 cruise conference in May, Bouldin said 2023 was shaping up to be “a bigger year” for the industry than 2019.
Just a few days beforehand Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings chief executive Frank Del Rio explained how 2023 “could be the best year in the history of the cruise industry”.
Speaking ahead of Clia’s Cruise Week, which started on Friday, Bouldin expanded on the prediction he made earlier this year.
He told Travel Weekly: “We all have confidence we can deliver a knockout year in 2023 and get back to levels in excess of 2019 as an industry.
“In the last full year of sailing in 2019, we had a little over two million cruisers.
“I think it is very much the industry’s goal to be able to surpass that number in 2023 or at least get back to that number in 2023.”
But he warned the ongoing Russia invasion of Ukraine and rising fuel costs meant there were still concerns the sector might not surpass its goal.
“There’s a lot of excitement and genuine confidence because demand has been really good this year,” he said, adding that demand had been slowly building since Q2 of this year.
“Not everything is as certain as one would like with the backdrop of the economy but demand for a holiday is genuinely very strong.
“We obviously hope that this continues. There are a lot of unknowns around the Russia-Ukraine situation and fuel costs.”
On Clia’s Cruise Week, Bouldin, who is also Royal Caribbean International’s EMEA vice-president, said: “I think the purpose of the Clia Cruise Week is to remind people there is a cruise for everyone.
“What a great chance we have to kick on now. We’re a mini-Wave period now. It’s a great time for people to consider a river or ocean-going holiday.”
Clia UK & Ireland managing director Andy Harmer said agents could win one of six cruises during Cruise Week. “We encourage as many people to get involved as possible,” he said.