Leaders of some of the largest cruise companies are reporting sales so strong for this year and next that they’re running out of cabins, despite adding newer and larger ships to their fleets.
Carnival CEO Josh Weinstein told industry analysts that “We’re now significantly ahead of the same time last year by about 10 [percentage] points, and well ahead of where we were in 2019,” and that the company has less inventory now than a year ago, despite a 5% increase in capacity.
A similar situation was reported in July by Royal Caribbean CEO Jason Liberty, who said “Booking volume since our last earnings call have continued to accelerate, both for 2023 sailings and even more so for 2024 as the majority of the bookings we are currently taking are for next year’s sailings.”