As more people are looking to vacation on the water this year, the cruise industry is experiencing a surge in demand.
The pandemic and cruisers are excited to get back to their wanderlust, as this is the first full summer without travel restrictions.
We always need to travel, said Angela O Daniel, a cruise passenger. It connects us to other people and places. The Holland America cruise ship headed to Alaska from Seattle has more than 2,000 people on board.
I really wanted to see whales on my 40th birthday, said cruise passenger Lisa Bujak. And the easiest way to do that is with an Alaskan cruise guaranteed to see whales. So that s why we chose it. Holland America is just one of several cruise lines where more people are coming on board this summer.
Guests have been booking earlier than we have ever seen before, Bodensteiner, Holland America's senior vice president of revenue management, said in a statement. At this point, ships are full throughout the summer. The Cruise Line International Association expects 31.5 million people to cruise this year. That would dwarf the nearly 30 million people who cruised in 2019, the last normal year before the pandemic.
Bodensteiner said that this summer's summer has been fantastic. It's been really great to see cruising back to where it was before Covid. Holland America has seen more people cruising because of what it costs to fly. Hopper notes that a domestic round-trip ticket will cost 306 on average and an average of $1,167 for a round trip to Europe.
We do see a lot of people coming to the Seattle or Vancouver home ports that are within the drive market and can avoid that high airfare that we re seeing this summer, Bodensteiner said.
While planning a cruise, some passengers took into account how expensive it is to fly.
It is just, as long as you make it here, everything else is taken care of, he said. The cruise industry could see even more passengers in the next few years. The Cruise Line International Association is forecasting 36 million passengers to cruise in 2024 and more than 37 million passengers to cruise in 2025.