By
Laura Hyde|
Leaders of the world’s biggest cruise lines discussed fleet expansion, ship refurbishments, guest experience and new technologies, as well as the economy and the geopolitical climate in the State of the Global Cruise Industry keynote at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami, Florida.
Bud Darr, president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association, began day two of the event with his opening remarks, in which he highlighted the progress made by the industry, emphasising “we are stronger when we work together”.
Darr was joined on stage by Josh Weinstein, president of Carnival Corporation; Jason Liberty, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group; Harry Sommer, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH); and Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of MSC Group's cruise division.
As Seatrade Cruise Global is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025, the group began by sharing what they were up to 40 years ago, before moving onto discuss successes from 2024 and the first financial quarter of 2025. Weinstein confirmed Carnival Corporation’s yield for the first three months of 2025 is seven per cent higher than the same period in 2024, with more bookings than ever before for the first three months of both 2026 and 2027. “The industry and our passengers are super resilient so while the economy has an impact on how people live their lives, they get used to the new normal and begin to book again,” he said. “People want the amazing experiences and incredible value cruising offers. They’re looking to make their money go further.”
Vago commented on the success of the European cruise industry in 2024 and highlighted the work cruise lines had done to ensure the wider consumer market understood what was involved in a cruise. “We penetrated the market extensively and there has been a lot of acceptance and understanding of what the cruise industry provides, and the market is responding,” he said.
Sommer discussed NCLH’s record number of passengers for 2024 as well as the highest-ever guest satisfaction scores across its three brands (Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises) and returning customer rates, saying: “when you provide a product where you have happy customers on full ships that’s a tremendous recipe for financial recovery”.
Liberty credited Royal Caribbean Group’s shipbuilding partners with helping the company to design and innovate for the future, as well as space out orders for newbuild cruise ships. “There’s four companies that are mainly building cruise ships but of course that brings constraints on supply,” he explained. “There are only so many slots a year for newbuild ships and what we’re seeing on the supply side is great confidence in the cruise companies as we’re managing our businesses for the longer term. We’re ordering ships further and further out, so there many be a lot of orders but those orders aren’t all happening in the next 24 months. We’re also producing ships that will help us on our collective journey to net zero by 2050.”
He went on to discuss Royal Caribbean Group’s plan to build a fleet of river cruise vessels in order to “meet customers where they are and to offer them the experiences they’re craving in addition to cruising, not instead of.”
Weinstein agreed, saying “different cruise passengers are looking for different experiences, from 120 days on a world cruise to seven-night trips, with the common theme of what the cruise brand has to deliver and the ethos of the experience, so we’re not looking to constantly be bigger for the sake of being bigger; that doesn’t make sense. We’re looking for the best guest experience and economics that will push us forward. We’re also investing significantly in seven 2,000-berth ships in their mid-lives to revitalise them and make them like new, because they’re going to be just as successful and profitable as ships we’re designing now.”
The group discussed accessing new markets, with Sommer confirming NCLH sourced guests “from 700 destinations, nearly every country in the world” in 2024. He went on to say “the single biggest thing we can do to recover post-pandemic is create something for everyone”.
Darr highlighted 2024 as a "super election year" with “a third of the world’s democracies holding elections”. He encouraged the industry and the associations that represent the industry to continue a “business as usual” approach despite global shifts in ideologies. “Moods change in the policy atmosphere and governments change, individuals change. We need to know how to engage with the right people on both our side and the right people on their side; we have to tell our story and be patient,” he explained. “The good news is the more we can leverage the strength of our members and our community in telling our story, the more successful we’re going to be at having breakthroughs with the policymakers to know they can trust us to do what we say we’re going to do and we have results that are fit for purpose.”
Seatrade Cruise Global runs from 7-10 April in Miami, Florida. Find out more about the four-day event on the dedicated website.