Cruise industry leaders have gathered for Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami Beach to discuss the state of the industry, including strong first quarter performance results reported by Josh Weinstein of Carnival Corporation.
Leaders acknowledged the uncertainty in the political landscape and economy, noting no immediate tariff impacts but recognising the challenges posed by market fluctuations and their effects on consumer confidence.
Royal Caribbean’s Jason Liberty expressed confidence in the industry’s long-term growth despite supply constraints from shipyard availability, with a focus on managing business sustainability.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s Harry Sommer highlighted record guest satisfaction scores and yield growth for 2024 despite initial market fluctuations at the start of the year.
Jason Liberty, president and CEO, Royal Caribbean Group told delegates: “On the supply side, you are seeing great confidence in the cruise companies as we are managing our business for the long term. We are ordering ships further and further out. It shows we are managing our business for the long term. “In reality about half the orderbook are ships under 100,000 tons. Current economic noise will not prevent our collective ambitions to grow this industry. You can’t put the same size ships in all different places, but you want to keep your customer in your brands. Because we are also looking further out, some of these ships are getting to 35 to 40 years in age, some of these will be net replacement.”.
Josh Weinstein told delegates: “With respect to our fleets and investments, we are not looking to be bigger to be bigger. We’re looking for the best guest experience and economics that are going to push us forward. It’s not an arms race for the sake of being bigger. As of now the answer is we don’t know what impact tariffs will have. It takes some time for people to get comfortable with the uncertainty. The uncertainty and ripple effect absolutely has an impact. The level of onboard spending we saw in the first quarter and what we said on the call and continued into March was incredible. The macro economy does have an impact at times with how people are living their lives Wave for us was interesting. It was inconsistent and choppy.
When times are harder people are looking to make their money go farther.
Harry Sommer, told delegates: We are in a position where we have lots of friends in lots of different places. This year started a little bit choppy. Two shaky days in the stock market do not lead us to change our long-term strategy.”
MSC Group’s Pierfrancesco Vago told delegates: “We need to talk to coastal communities to see how we can make the experience better.”
