Royal Caribbean International is seeing a return to typical booking patterns with “robust” spending by consumers, despite cost-of-living concerns.
Michael Bayley, president and chief executive at Royal Caribbean International, told delegates at Abta’s convention in Marrakech: “We have yet to see a crisis of confidence from consumers.
“Looking to the remainder of this year, 2023 and early 2024, we see a very normal, typical return to booking behaviour by consumers.
“We are seeing very robust consumer spending, especially with onboard spending.
“It was strong as we came out of the pandemic; we thought it would wane, but it has continued.”
Speaking to moderator Chris Ship via video, he explained: “During the pandemic, consumers could not have experiences so they upgraded their homes, TVs and couches because we were all at home for almost two years.
“Now most people say ‘to hell with that’.”
He said consumers want to see friends and family, visit destinations and “have a life”.
“It is all positive for tourism and travel; demand is robust,” he said.
He said demand quickly accelerated in markets where Covid protocols were dropped and it is now above 2019 levels.
Next year will see the delivery of the cruise line’s first Icon-class ship, Icon of the Seas, which will start sailing in 2024.
“Icon will be a game-changing product…attracting new-to-cruise people and expanding the market,” said Bayley.
He said the ship will have the “wow factor” as well as sustainability features such as LNG to cut carbon emissions.
Commenting on the issues of overtourism, he highlighted the importance of the industry for many economies in destinations that are visited by cruise lines.
He said CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, hosts two million people over the course of a year in a 40-acre space, which means the visitors can be managed responsibly and have a positive impact.
“I am optimistic about the future,” he said.
“There is a series of problems and issues such as inflation but, at the end of the day, what matters is the demand and customers.
“We have to deal with challenges but overall the sky looks blue.”
Photo credit: Arif Gardner