Despite the horrific stories of sickness, quarantines, and images of coronavirus ridden cruise ships, it has been reported that there is a 40 percent increase in cruise bookings for 2021 compared with 2019. And apparently it is not just rebooking of cancelled trips.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Heidi M. Allison, the president of CruiseCompete.com, said that just 11 percent of the bookings are by people who had their trips cancelled in 2020.

“People are still booking cruises and are anxious to sail again when this is all over,” she said.

UBS, the large Swiss bank, issued a report on March 31 analyzing the cruise industry that found booking volume for 2021 was up 9 percent in the last month compared to the same time period last year.

UBS said that some of those bookings included travellers who were given credits by companies after cancelling this year.

The bank said that the amount of bookings “still shows a surprising resilience in desire to book a cruise.”

The report found that travellers were booking the most trips to Asia and Alaska, ‘so there is pent up demand for Asia travel next year.’

It also found that 76 percent of those whose cruises were cancelled as a result of the pandemic have opted to take a credit for a future trip rather than a refund.

Some cruise lines are even offering passengers credits of up to 125 percent of the fare of the cancelled cruises as well as spending money while on board. But passengers who accept credits would then forfeit on getting a refund.

CruiseCritic.com, an online review site, conducted a poll of more than 4,600 cruise passengers.

The poll found that 75 percent plan on taking cruises at the same frequency as before or more often after the coronavirus pandemic passes. The remaining 25 percent said they plan to cruise less often or stay away from cruise ships indefinitely.

Cruise lines suspended sailings worldwide on March 13.