Have any of our TA's noticed a slow down in cruise bookings lately due to the economy? I've been reading a few news articles that indicate people are cutting back on vacations in general but I wonder if they would be eliminating a cruise also.
I'm in a kind of niche in the industry that is slower to notice slow downs but... We have for the first time in several years stopped new hires and the training program that was once always running new classes, as one ended the next began. Don't know if it has to do with the economy or other factors, you can't grow forever. Personally I've noticed no slow down in bookings. The first quarter of the yaer was very strong although not record breaking. We'll see if the second quarter show signs of weakening. My guess is that it may show a small dip. After record breaking quarters for the cruise industry for a couple of years it couldn't possibly continue to grow at the pace it was on, or could it? We'll see, the industry is certainly not hurting. RCCL had record profits last year despite the cost of fuel rising. Others had similar results. If it does slow a little, it may result in lower cruise pricing. That will be the big indicator. If pricing dips significanly, it's slow for bookings. If they climb or remain at current level, it's a healthy market.
I haven't noticed any slow down in my particular niche. Cruising tends to be a stable area of the travel industry, especially since cruise lines have become responsive to passenger requirements. For example, after 9/11, many cruise lines that had not done so before, started sailing out of many different ports around the country, such that a much larger percentage of the population could drive to an embarkation port, rather than fly.
Sometimes a cruise line's ups and downs in profitability has more to do with how much money they're pouring into the many new ships they're building, or if they suffered an incident that garnered a lot of negative press coverage. But the broad strokes are that the popular cruise lines continue to be popular, and profitable.
I would think that since it is still a good value vacation, anyone who can take a vacation will. And, as Sandy said, since more people can drive to a cruise port, it is a more viable option. I haven't seen a decrease in pricing, so that would indicate to me, cruising is holding its own. For economies on the euro, taking a cruise from a US port, is probably the best value they can receive. I guess time will tell, but I don't think there's be a slow down yet.
