Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL) chief executive Richard Fain sold stock worth $24.4m after after the company reported strong second-quarter results and anticipated a “sensational year”.

He offloaded 210,706 shares on 2 August at a weighted average price of $115.83.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing notes that the shares were owned by Monument Capital Corp as nominee for various trusts primarily for the benefit of certain members of the Fain family.

Fain was listed as owning 967,741 shares in the company following the transaction, with a further 5,500 shares listed as owned by The Montana Trust primarily for the benefit of certain members of the Fain family.

SEC documents also reveal president and chief operating officer Adam Goldstein sold two tranches of 60,000 shares on 2 and 3 August at $117.2382 and $119.1873, respectively for a grand total of $14,185,530.

Goldstein is reported as owning 131,252 shares following the second sale.

Company director and chair of the compensation committee Bernt Reitan on 2 August sold 4,793 shares at a weighted average of $117.22, rendering a total of $561,827. He is listed as owning 7,682 shares following the sale.

But the executive who did best in terms of share price was Larry Pimentel, chief executive of Royal Caribbean subsidiary Azamara Club Cruises, who on 2 August sold 17,000 shares priced at $120.50 each for a total of $2,048,500.

Pimentel is listed as owning 20,045 shares following the transaction, while his wife has 725 shares.

Royal Caribbean’s share price has reached historic highs in recent weeks, standing at $119.80 at the close of trading on Tuesday, up from $117.76 the day before. The company has a market capitalisation of $25.8bn.

According to a Royal Caribbean blog post, Fain suggested during the company’s second-quarter earnings call that the current strength of the cruise market could be down to people increasingly wanting to invest in experiences rather than just consumer goods.

“Instead of buying TVs and cars, they seem to be buying memories as never before. Since we're in an industry that specialises in providing great memories, that trend plays to our sweet spot.

“Even better, the trend shows no respect for borders and seems to be occurring all around the world. Our sailings in the US, Europe, Alaska, Asia, all demonstrate this fabulous phenomenon,” he said.