10 September 2009

New reason to take a cruise: marriage

Almost two-thirds of travel agents report their cruise wedding business has increased in the last two years, according to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).

"More and more cruise lines offer shipboard wedding packages, amenities and wedding planning services, including legal marriages performed by ships’ captains virtually anywhere in the world," says CLIA.

Why? One major reason is single stop planning for the ceremony, reception and honeymoon.

There’s also a variety of choices for where the ceremony is done: ranging from at sea to a tropical beach.

"And, besides weddings, many CLIA lines offer honeymoon and vow renewal packages, bachelor and bachelorette parties, even programs for ‘popping the question’ - the ultimate engagement party at sea," says the site.

Some recent findings:

• Almost 40 percent of travel agents have sold shipboard or destination wedding cruises

• Cruise weddings are getting more popular: Travel agents report booking more day-of-embarkation wedding cruises (18.3 percent); more shipboard weddings with guests going along for the cruise (22.1 percent) and more in-port weddings during the cruise (18.3 percent)

• The best reasons to have a cruise wedding? More than one-third of agents say their clients want to combine a wedding with a honeymoon; over 23 percent said value offered by cruise lines was the top reason

• Over 80 percent of agents rank the Caribbean/Bahamas destination as the overwhelming favorite among cruise wedding clientele

• The typical wedding cruise is a seven-day voyage in the Caribbean and/or The Bahamas, on a large cruise ship with less than ten guests in the group. However, almost one-third of agents report booking wedding groups of 10 to 20 guests and over 10 percent book wedding parties of 20 to 30, and some cruise lines have reported wedding parties of as much as 200

• The typical cruise wedding clientele are mid-priced travelers aged 44 or younger who book eight to 10 months ahead.

By David Wilkening