I’ve been inundated in the past week with all sorts of data about consumer spending trends and the state of the travel industry in 2009.
Various pieces of research are emerging as the travel trade gets to grips with the state of business in the first quarter of the year – traditionally the peak booking time for summer holidays both on shore and at sea.
And it appears, that while sales of cars and other big ticket consumer durables are taking a hit due to the recession, holidays remain a priority purchase.
OK, we may be taking fewer vacations in 2009, shopping around more for the best value and leaving it later to put down our hard-earned money, but it seems – as one influential report by PricewaterhouseCoopers put it – that holidays remain sacred to us.
Getting away from the doom and gloom is clearly the driving force and the cruise sector – both specialist agencies such as Virgin Holidays Cruises and the cruise companies themselves – is amongst those at the forefront in coming up with imaginative and cost-effective holiday choices.
Talking around the industry circuit, many are saying that the offers and deals available for cruises this summer are amongst the best they can recall.
And these will be followed up in the coming weeks with a vast array of attractive promotions designed to entice passengers onto a fleet of brand spanking new ships due to be introduced by companies such as Cunard Line, Celebrity Cruises, P&O Cruises, Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line for 2010.
For the cruise industry, a switch in consumer preferences back to package holidays this year has to be good news.
The latest research I have seen suggests that bookings for all inclusive holidays are up by almost a quarter over this time last year, while those booking half board arrangements have risen by more than 50%.
While no breakdown is given to the particular type of holiday being sought, cruises fall exceptionally well into both categories and arguably offer as much if not more than an equivalent land-resort in terms of facilities, levels of service, cuisine, child care and comfort.
But it is clear that with the economy and exchange rates dictating consumer spend in 2009, there has been a marked shift with more people investing their holiday budgets in non-euro countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, and Morocco as they get more for their money.
Of course, exchange rates don’t have to be such an issue on a cruise holiday, as most costs are accounted for in advance. Even shore excursions can be booked and paid for ahead of departure, meaning that those on fixed budgets know exactly what is included and can then work out holiday spending money from there.
The current abundance of all-inclusive cruise deals combined with offers such discounted fares, on-board credit, free car parking, complementary cabin upgrades and the like and the ability to avoid costly air fares by departing from nearby ports makes cruising an attractive option for travellers looking to relax on a budget.
As we all seek to make our pounds stretch a little further, cruise holidays are the obvious option.
Now it’s down to the industry to reinforce the message and change widely-held misconceptions by those who have never set foot on a ship that cruises are boring and claustrophobic.
One way of doing that will be the PR spin-off from massive showcases of new ships such as Celebrity Equinox in Southampton in July, the world’s largest cruise ship, 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas, in Miami in November; Celebrity Eclipse and P&O Cruises’ Azura in April 2010 in Southampton and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth at the end of next year.
Related posts:
- Cruising For A Bruising In 2009? Even before the Christmas turkey was stuffed and put...
- Cruising Weathers Economic Storm The term ‘bouncebackability’ was coined by former football manager...
- Credit Crunch Cruising Not a day seems to go by at the...
- All Things Change, And We Change With Them Nothing in life is forever; we must embrace change...
- Growth of Cruising I’ve been thinking about when I last went on...
Leave a Comment