After making it through a punishing pandemic, cruise lines are enjoying a return to normalcy, with high load factors, strong bookings and higher yields. Carnival Cruise Line is no different; after cutting the ribbon on the line's new Italian-style cruise ship, the Carnival Venezia, the line's president, Christine Duffy, sat down with cruise editor Andrea Zelinski to talk about bookings, how long the travel boom will last and whether she feels pressure to get rid of noncommissionable fees (NCFs).
Christine Duffy
Q: How are bookings?
A: We're doing well overall. The ships are full. 2023 is, as we say, in the bag. I keep getting messages from people who thought they could still book their family summer vacation, and they're frustrated because there's no space. But 2024 is open, and we're telling people they should plan ahead. It's really a wonderful thing to see.
Q: What is the state of the new-to-cruise market?
A: Cruise is still such a small fraction of the vacations that Americans take. Given the value, the experience, the way these ships have evolved, I think the opportunity is really for the entire industry to be able to get more new-to-cruise guests who are going to fall in love with cruising like so many people who cruise have.
Q: Have you seen a change in the numbers of new-to-cruise bookings compared with repeat cruisers?
A: I was surprised since the restart. I was expecting that it would have skewed much more toward loyal repeat, but we've held steady in the percentage of new-to-cruise and repeat, 50-50.
Q: Is Europe performing well?
A: We have one ship in Europe, but I'm telling you, I get a lot of requests from guests that we should have a bigger ship. I get requests from people in Europe who say, "Yeah, there's a lot of European brands operating, but we like the Carnival experience." I think for every brand, the experience really is quite different.
Q: How long do you think this travel boom will last?
A: I don't think it's a boom, I think it's a real shift. I think this was happening before the pandemic; I would go back even to 2008. It goes back to people. What do people value today? We see it with how people want to work today. They want flexibility, they want more work-life balance, they want experiences over things, and travel is the great uniter. People want to see the world, and I think it's a real challenge right now, with things like air travel becoming very challenging and very expensive. I think that bodes well for the cruise industry.
But I don't think this is going to wane. And even with inflation as we've seen it, people will make a different sacrifice to be able to preserve their vacation. We're seeing people taking those smaller, shorter vacations, multiple vacations a year. People want to travel; it's not limited to cruise, as we know. I just don't see this really shrinking back to where it was.
Q: Do you feel pressure by Norwegian Cruise Line's decision to get rid of NCFs?
A: No. We've got our business, and our business is doing really well. We've got 25 ships, we're going to 27 ships. One of our big priorities and biggest things we're excited about is not only getting the new ships but finally getting an exclusive destination in Grand Bahama, the expansion that will happen in Half Moon, with a pier that will allow us to bring in our biggest ships. Half Moon has always been just a phenomenal private destination. All channels are open, as we say. We make investments carefully and where we think we need them, just like every business has to do.