Trends in cruising

The former manager of Airtours spoke recently at the UK Cruise Convention, encouraging those present with the news that the price of cruises would soon drop, attracting more consumers than ever before.

Seamus Conlon was invited to open the three-day conference and did so by predicting that cruises would soon become more affordable than they have been in the past.

According to Conlon, many consumers perceive cruises as a travel option of the wealthy or the elderly and that perception, Conlon said, “has to be dealt with”.

“Prices will fall and eventually you will get more and more people coming into the market, that’s no bad thing,” he said.

For the ultra-luxury cruise segment of the cruise market, however, falling prices are less than desirable. Unable to charge as much as they had in the past, some operators felt that they would be unable to offer customers the same level of luxury service they had in the past.

Trudy Redfern, Silversea Cruises’ vice-president of sales and marketing, said, “It’s not good for us to see prices fall because there would be a worry that we would not be able to deliver the same standards we are known for.”

“At the moment we are not seeing prices fall except in some areas where there is high capacity such as the Mediterranean or the Baltic – you either sail empty or get to a point where you start doing tactical promotions.”

According to Redfern, passengers from the UK account for 80 per cent of sales on cruises to Dubai, one of the most popular up market destinations for tourists.

According to the chief commercial officer for Carnival UK, Peter Shanks, there is no evidence to support the perception that cruise prices are, in fact, falling. Instead, he pointed out that most cruise lines were actually investing money into their products, pouring millions of dollars into new ships, onboard facilities and quality food.