The cruise industry, now that it’s operating again, can breathe a little sigh of relief: a new survey by the CruiseCritic website found that they’ve lost little if any of their core customers.
The survey, drawing 5400 responses, showed that two-thirds of the group already have cruises booked, with two-thirds of that group sailing in the next six months. And 96% of those who haven’t booked yet are planning to.
But, it seems, the audience may be a little less adventurous than in the past; 66% of the booked cruises are for North America or the Caribbean. Another 15% mentioned Europe and only 4% were interested in ‘adventure’ cruises to places like Antarctica, the Arctic and Antarctica.
That last is a little out of line with an announcement last week from Carnival; it announced a second Greenland cruise for next year after the first one offered sold out almost before anyone knew about it. It’s a relatively uncharted destination for the cruise industry, and is significantly affected by climate change.
The survey also found the cruisers ready for more in another way: Four times as many (20%) said they were now interested in longer cruises than they had taken in the past, while only 5% are looking for shorter cruises. Cruises of 7 to 9 days are winning out over 3 to 5 day jaunts.
Among the key issues respondents reported in choosing their next cruise were destination, price and ship, cancellation policies and health protocols. CruiseCritic noted that this is the first time the health protocols have been near the top of the list.
