As we approach the summer of 2023, the cruise industry shows no signs of slowing down.
Recently released internet search numbers for cruises show that interest in cruises is on the rise. After a strong start to the year, with record booking numbers in the first three months of the WAVE Season, the desire for a cruise holiday shows no signs of abating. In fact, it is growing exponentially.
Online Travel Searches Are on the Rise
With almost all cruise lines showing record bookings in the first few months of the year, one would think that interest in cruises would begin to show a decline. However, the opposite is true, with a recent report showing how much interest there is.
Report on Similar website It shows that online search has been on a journey to see a huge increase, which has been happening since the business started to recover in 2021-2022.
With accommodation figures already reported and interest increasing, the cruise industry is likely to surpass the previous record of visitors set in 2019. The report shows that more people have been visiting travel websites this year, with an increase of 15.6%.
Even the latest addition to the market, Virgin Voyages, is enjoying record numbers, with an incredible 104.8% growth in the number of visitors to its website compared to last year. The company received more than 2.2 million visits in May alone, a 20% increase compared to April.
Established types Popular Tours and Norwegian Cruise Line also posted encouraging numbers. Celebrity Cruises rose 36.8% from last year, to 5 million trips. Norwegian Cruise Lines saw a 33% increase, receiving 8.9 million cruises.
Major players in the cruise market, Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International, also jumped on board. Carnival, the industry’s largest brand, received 14.4 million trips, an increase of 5.9% compared to last year. Royal Caribbean recorded an increase of 4.5% from last year, with 13.6 million trips.
Surprisingly, the increase in traffic to Norwegian Cruise Line is coming thanks to Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International. This could be the reason Norwegian Primapositive reviews since its launch last year.
Rising Popularity Increases Interest
Another important takeaway is that most people search for cruises by name when they search the Internet – a sign of popularity.
Virgin Travel led the pack with a 56% increase in name searches, followed by Norwegian and Celebrity, which saw increases of 26.8% and 23.6%, respectively. On the other hand, both Carnival and Royal Caribbean reported fewer name searches last year.
Some cruise lines are getting more and more websites because they are well known and liked, either because of successful promotions or, as in the case of Virgin, excellent reviews.
While cruises dominate paid traffic through marketing and advertising, the growth of smaller players is a real interest in the industry.
Despite the slight drop in traffic, Royal Caribbean spent a lot of time on advertising in May, following a massive advertising campaign Symbol of the Sea. Popular Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Virgin Voyages, and Carnival Cruise Line follow closely behind.
Although Carnival and Royal Caribbean have seen fewer visitors to their websites compared to previous months, they remain the leading players, attracting more visitors than all their competitors combined.
The the impressive growth of Virgin CruisesFamous, and Norwegian Cruise Line shows the company’s transformation, showing their successful marketing efforts, strong marine offerings, and the attraction surrounding new ships such as Celebrity Apexthree Virgin Voyages ships, and Norwegian Prima.
As we head into the summer of 2023, the cruise industry is looking for good weather and what could be a record year. Something that all seafarers will receive after the disaster period between 2020 and 2022.
