Current Events Not Hurting Cruise Sales, Travel Agents Say

Almost 73% of the 700 agents surveyed said they expect sales to increase this year.

News in Paris, Brussels, Orlando buffeted the travel industry this spring, causing cruise lines to alter their plans and changing the vacation plans of thousands of customers. But cruise bookings have held the course—and are rising, say travel agents in Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) third quarterly report.

Almost 73% of the 700 agents surveyed said they expect sales to increase this year, with 27% expecting increases of 10% or higher. 

“Trends tend to be more of a concern by clients when something ‘bad’ happens. They see a negative news report about something that has happened and assume it will happen on their vacation,” said Cindy Seaburn, owner of Cindy Seaburn Travel in Jacksonville, FL, and one of the survey’s respondents.  

“I respond by saying these instances are not the norm and point out the number of sailings happening each day.” 

More and more clients are coming to agents looking for cruises in the long-term future—41% of agents are seeing an increase in booking nine months to one year in advance and 36% are seeing more booking six months to nine months ahead. 

But world events over the past year have made an impact, however. More clients are opting for sailings close to home—62% of agents said they are expecting growth in Alaska, 48% said bookings will increase in the Caribbean/Bermuda/Mexico, 25% said Canada/New England, 34% said Hawaii and 28% said California and the Pacific. 

Agents couldn’t say the same about any region outside of North America, though they do expect those regions to remain steady.

Meanwhile, agents are still confident that growth will remain high in all segments. While river cruising is the segment that continues to show the most growth (64% of agents who answered said they expect to sell more river cruises this year than last), agents said they expect all segments to increase. 

A majority of agents also expect mass market cruises (57%), premium cruises (50%) and luxury cruises (41%) to increase.