By
Rebecca Gibson |
Germans are choosing shorter ocean and river cruises, and are becoming increasingly price sensitive when booking a river cruise, according to research from German company e-hoi.
Analysing bookings made between 1 January and 30 June 2014, the German booking portal found that ocean cruises accounted for the largest percentage of its online reservations between 2013 and 2014.
While the average ocean cruise prices remained stable at around €1,266, compared to €1,261 in 2013, the price per day rose by 2% from €115 to €117. This was due to the fact that ocean cruises lasted an average of 9.8 days in 2014, a 3% reduction from the average 10.1 days guests spent at sea last year.
e-hoi’s survey also indicated that lower prices have driven a surge of bookings in the river segment, enabling it to achieve 43% year-on-year growth and take 10% of the total market share in 2014. In 2014, the average river cruise price dropped by 24% from €1,065 to €805, while the daily rate fell from €127 to €110. The average length of a river cruise dropped from 7.9 days to seven days.
Contrary to recent industry trends, German passengers are now booking cruises further in advance to ensure they can benefit from early bird rates and offers. This year, 29% of passengers reserved their holidays six months or more in advance and 28% of cruises were booked between three and six months ahead, while the share of ocean and river voyages booked up to three months in advance decreased from 51% to 43%. Passengers booked their ocean cruises an average of 137 days before departure, while river cruises were reserved 115 days in advance, compared to compared to 123 days and 110 days ahead in 2013.
The report also indicated that at 61.6 years, the average age of river cruisers remains higher than that of the ocean cruisers who are 53.6 years old.