Poll Shows Cruise Industry’s Tarnished Reputation

This year’s string of highly publicized cruise ship malfunctions is continuing to erode consumer confidence in major cruise brands, according to a new Harris poll.

Unfortunately for both the cruise industry and cruise-selling agents, the passage of time does not appear to be working its usual healing magic.

The Harris Interactive poll of 2,052 U.S. adults found that consumers’ perceptions of the top cruise brands had fallen even below levels recorded shortly after the Carnival Triumph was set adrift in the Gulf of Mexico in February, when an engine room fire caused it to lose power.

The new poll, conducted online May 14 to 15, was taken before the most recent cruise incident to make headlines – a May 27 fire on Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas.

Brand trust slips
The average trust score for the seven cruise brands in the poll was down 12% in May compared to a poll taken shortly before the Triumph incident and down 5% compared to a poll just after the incident.  

In this latest poll, consumers’ intent to purchase a cruise was down 11% from pre-Triumph levels. Holland America had the best showing among the seven lines, down by just 2%. The worst, not surprisingly, was Carnival Cruise Lines, down 20%.

Long-lasting impact
Cruise ship incidents are having a deeper and more long-lasting effect on consumer confidence than pollsters had anticipated, said Harris Poll Insights vice president Deana Percassi.

“We were open to the idea that a ‘recency bias’ of sorts might be impacting the results so soon after the Triumph fiasco, creating a low tide for the industry as a whole,” she said.

“But these more recent findings, coupled with reports of heavily discounted pricing on Carnival cruises, indicate that the industry as a whole, as well as the Carnival brand specifically, may still be facing rough seas.”

Air travel safer?
The cruise incidents seem to be putting air travel in a more-favorable light.

More than six in 10 respondents (62%) said air travel was much more reliable than cruising, up from 57% in February. A smaller majority (56%) said air travel was also much safer than taking cruises, up from 50% in February.

In both polls, about half of respondents said they were less likely to take a cruise now than they were a year earlier. This sentiment was stronger among those who had never taken a cruise (56%) than among those who had (43%).

Only one-third of consumers (32%) agreed that cruises are “worry-free,” down slightly from 35% in February. Those who had taken a cruise were more than twice as likely as to call cruises worry-free (51%); only 22% of non-cruisers said cruises were worry-free.

Next time: A PR pro shares pratical tips for agents on combatting negative perceptions about cruising.