Testing the Waters with Dori: Great News for Travel Advisors

Last month I attended both the Seatrade Cruise Global and CLIA’s Cruise360 conferences, and the overarching theme for both shows was just how good the cruise industry is doing. Words like unprecedented, boisterous, and robust were bandied about by cruise line presidents and CEOs, and new ship orders were an almost daily announcement.

During Seatrade, CLIA announced its 2024 State of the Cruise Industry report and the numbers are staggering.

Between 2019 and 2023, the number of cruisers in North America grew by an impressive 17.5% from 15.4 million in 2019 to 18.1 million in 2023. And with the global capacity of the CLIA fleet projected to grow by 10% over the next four years, there’s lots of room for future growth.

And that’s fantastic news for travel advisors!

“Travel advisors play such an important role in that,” Kelly Craighead, president and CEO of CLIA, told me in a sit-down at Cruise360. “The role that advisors play and why they’re such an enduring support is because matchmaking is critical and the ability to be on the right product means they [new-to-cruise] will be forever cruisers.”

Here are just a few data points from this year’s State of Cruise Industry report that should have you doing a happy dance:

• 12% of cruisers take a cruise twice a year – 10% take three to five cruises a year!
• 71% of international travelers are considering taking their first cruise.
• 27% of cruisers over the past two years are new-to-cruise, an increase of 12% for this segment.
• 36% of today’s global cruiser is under the age of 40.
• 73% of cruise travelers say that travel advisors have a meaningful impact on their decision to cruise, with cruisers citing advisors’ knowledge and experience as the main benefit.
• 11% of cruise travelers said they only considered cruise for their vacation in 2024.

Are you happy dancing yet?

Here are two more facts to get those feet tapping.

• The intent to sail on higher priced cruise vacations is also going up. The number of passengers sailing on expedition itineraries increased by a whopping 71% from 2019 to 2023.
• Millennials are just a few short years away from accounting for the majority of cruisers. Right now Baby Boomers and Gen X are neck and neck, each accounting for 24% of the cruising population. But Millennials are right behind at 22%. As more Baby Boomers leave the travel market, the size of the millennial generation means that that age group will become the majority of cruisers sooner rather than later. More importantly, the same holds true for cruisers who plan to cruise again. Eighty-four percent of both Baby Boomers and Gen X past cruisers plan to cruise again; 81% of Millennials said the same thing, as did 74% of Gen Z cruisers.

Add all those stats up into a fancy equation and that’s A LOT of opportunity for travel advisors, particularly as the CLIA global fleet gets bigger – there are 35 new ships coming between now and 2028 – and there’s more confusion as to which ship is the right ship.

“The opportunity is really in understanding, what are the unique differences between the products,” Craighead said. “The opportunity is to be able to share that range of products and to be able to dispel that there is only one type of cruiser and one type of itinerary.”

She added that travel advisors get to “incite and excite” travelers when they do this.

Caught Unawares
There’s one more piece of the State of the Cruise Industry report I want to call your attention to, because it caught me by surprise.

If I asked you, which segment of cruise ships (1,000 or less, 1,001 to 3,000, or 3,001 and up) has the largest number of ships in it, what would you say?

No, really, what would you say? [Jot it down if you can before reading on. I’d love to hear what your first thought was.]

I thought it was in the 3,000 and up bucket.

I was wrong.

Here’s what the report has to say:

• In 2023, 34% of the CLIA fleet had less than 1,000 lower berths. For 2028, as of now, that percentage is forecast to stay the same.
• In 2023 and 2028 (again, as of now), 10% of the fleet holds or will hold between 1,000 and 1,999 passengers.
• In 2023, 29% of the fleet had 2,000 to 2,999 lower berths. But, in 2028, as of now, that percentage will go down three percentage points to 26%.
• In 2023, 16% of the fleet had 3,000 to 3,999 lower berths. For 2028, as currently projected, that will go down a single percentage point to 15%.

Now here’s where I was surprised.

• In 2023, only 12% of the fleet had more than 4,000 lower berths! By 2028, as currently projected, this will go up three percentage points to 15% of the fleet.

Said another way, even in 2028, when we’ve had yet more mega ships come online, the 3,000 and up segment of cruise ships will still only account for 30% of the entire fleet, less than both of the other two groups looked at separately.

And yet, most consumers won’t – and don’t – realize this crucial fact.

“There is such a perception that cruising is only one thing,” Craighead said. “People really do not know that you do not have to be on the biggest ships.”

And there, again, exists a great opportunity for travel advisors.

Consumers don’t see advertising for the luxury yachts or the expedition cruises. It’s up to advisors to spread the word … and reap the profit.

What do you think? Are you as excited about the opportunities inherent in selling cruise over the next several years? And were you as surprised as I was by the makeup of the CLIA global cruise fleet? Let me know your thoughts at dsaltzman@travelmarketreport.com.