As might be expected, optimism reigned at a conference of the cruise community that predicted the clouds of the long pandemic lockdown have finally disappeared and the horizon is once again brilliantly sunny. At the Seatrade Cruise Global conference in Fort Lauderdale, cruise lines pointed to record booking days–in part due to redemptions of cruise credits for previously cancelled cruises–and the fact cruise tourism is rebounding faster than bookings for land-based resorts–in part because cruising is a comparative bargain.
The global cruise passenger total is forecast to surpass pre-pandemic 2019 levels in 2023, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. The projected 31.5- million is up from the admittedly anemic 20.4-million who cruised in 2022 in the recovery from the total shutdown of the previous year. But it’s also up from the pre-pandemic 2019’s total of 29.7-million, the industry association calculated.
Read it all in The Cruisington Times