Tag Archives: Princess

Royal Caribbean Sails Up as Largest Brand in the Industry

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Royal Caribbean International will be the largest cruise brand in the world by 2029 noticeably ahead of Carnival Cruise Line, according to the 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report.

The Royal Caribbean brand will have an annual global capacity of approximately 6.5 million passengers in 2029, compared to 5.4 million for Carnival Cruise Line.

Royal Caribbean will sail 30 ships versus 27 for Carnival.

While Royal Caribbean will be the largest globally, based on known deployment and the current orderbook of new builds to be introduced, Carnival will most likely continue to dominate in the Caribbean where the brand tends to concentrate its deployment.

The other largest brands on a global scale in order of size will be MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess, Celebrity, AIDA, Costa, TUI and Holland America.

Two question marks would be what happens in China with Carnival’s joint Adora venture that could grow quickly when the Chinese market returns, and if more Costa ships were to be transferred to Carnival’s Fun Italian Style product.

The 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report is in digital and printed formats. Order today by clicking here.

Jamaica Welcomes Over 1.5 Million Visitors In 2023

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Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett revealed that Jamaica has welcomed over 1.5 million total visitors since January 2023, according to a press release.

“Between January 1, 2023, and May 10, we received 1,586,303 total visitors, stopover and cruise, earning $1.69 billion, putting our destination on par with 2019 record figures. We have seen steady growth in our arrivals and continued investment in the tourism sector, which is a tremendous achievement,” said Bartlett.

Bartlett said that strategic investments and resilience were vital in sustaining such a strong recovery of the tourism sector.

“To keep this growth on an upward trajectory, we continue to secure new air service with the addition of new routes by prestigious carriers such as American Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Arajet, and Edelweiss Airlines. We are expanding and modernizing Sangster International Airport and have approximately 8,000 new hotel rooms slated for construction over the next two to five years.”

Bartlett also highlighted that the Ministry of Tourism’s Blue Ocean Strategy and its Destination Assurance Framework and Strategy have influenced the development of a more sustainable and diverse tourism product.

“Jamaica is leveraging key pillars for tourism that showcase the destination’s unique culture and heritage while simultaneously addressing the desire of today’s traveller to experience more than just sun, sea and sand. We need to carefully manage the industry through resilience building, so it can continually adapt to issues that may arise and put plans in place to protect it from potential future shocks,” concluded Bartlett.

Modest Growth Forecast for UK Market

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Celebrity cruise in Southampton photo credit Spacejunkie2 (Flickr)

The UK market has had to absorb additional capacity amounting to 316,000 more passengers, coming out of the pandemic in 2022 and 2023, according to the 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report.

The capacity growth was driven by P&O Cruises’ introducing two new ships in short order, the Iona and Arvia, boosting the brand’s capacity from just short of 550,000 in 2019, the last typical operating year, to nearly 800,000 in 2023.

The other major operator in the UK market is Marella Cruises, which will see its capacity grow from approximately 407,000 in 2023 to 440,000 by 2024. It remains at that level, barring any more ship introductions, and maintaining its position as the second-largest brand in the UK.

Thus, the national cruise supply is forecast to see little growth from 2023 to 2029, only increasing from approximately 1.6 million to 1.8 million passengers over the time period.

The P&O and Marella brands typically target different market segments, with P&O in the premium segment and Marella in the more price-conscious so-called budget segment.

Cunard Line is also based in Britain, but also markets its capacity in other countries, such as the United States, Australia, Germany and Japan.

Other more typical British brands include Fred. Olsen, Saga and newcomer Ambassador Cruises, with the latter taking up the slack where Cruise and Maritime have been.

As the second largest national cruise market in Europe, Princess and MSC also have ships dedicated to the UK market and other European and North American cruise lines market.