The cruise sector is flourishing for basically two reasons — industry-fostered demand and room to grow — says Carnival Corp CEO Arnold Donald.
"You have to realise that cruise is still a very small industry," he tells TradeWinds. "All the cabins in the world add up to less than 2% of hotel rooms worldwide."
All the cabins in the world add up to less than 2% of hotel rooms worldwide
Room to grow
He says a slightly less number of vacationers visit Venice or Las Vegas each year than all 27 million cruise passengers worldwide.
"The entire global cruise market is a number of travellers that visit one or two key cities in the world. We’re small," he says.
That number has steadily grown, however, over the years from 17.8 million vacationers stepping aboard cruiseships in 2009, according to statistics from Cruise Lines International Association.
Asia has seen a sizeable jump in cruise interest, with 849,000 vacationers hitting the high seas in this year's first quarter, up from 693,000 a year ago and 466,000 two years ago.
"Part of it is that more people are cruising because there are so many more people available to cruise," Donald says. "People are travelling."
He says the other part is the work that the industry keeps doing to promote itself as the top vacation option.
"We are exceeding guest expectations so when they leave that ship, they’re going to tell everybody 'It was great. It was fantastic. It was not what you’d expect. You should check it out'," he says. "One of the most powerful marketing tools out there is word of mouth."
Promotional material
Carnival is further promoting the industry through five television shows alone in the US on ABC, NBC, Telemundo and Univision, as well as programmes aired in the UK and Italy, he says.
The company also has an Ocean View digital network through Apple TV and Roku that airs destinations, cruise features and reruns of other Carnival network shows.
"In the past, the brands were often doing a lot of price marketing and now we’re doing genuine experience marketing on cruise," he says. "Once people comprehend it, it’s the greatest vacation value."
