Cruising starts to hit late booking curve

A slight shift towards later cruise bookings has emerged in an industry report.

The proportion of those booked less than three months prior to departure rose from 24% to 26% last year.

More than half of the total was still booked more than six months in advance.

This was still below the 42% share of late bookings taken in 2001 when just six per cent booked a year in advance compared with 18% last year.

“But it suggested that the economic uncertainty was beginning to affect consumer confidence – a trend which appeared to be continuing in the early months of 2009,” the Passenger Shipping Association’s Annual Cruise Review said.

“Although the economic situation has created some of the toughest market conditions the travel industry has seen for years, a combination of increased capacity, strong repeat business and timely consumer recognition of cruising’s value for money is expected to ensure further global growth in 2009,” the report added.

The report also found that cruise passengers are opting to holiday for longer with greater numbers using UK departure ports.

The average length of a cruise taken last year increased from 9.7 to 10.4 nights with an 18% rise in the number of cruise nights booked by UK passengers.

The cruise review shows that 23% more passengers chose to start their holiday from a UK port in 2008 compared with the previous year.

This means that four out of every ten cruises booked departed from a UK port.

The review found that one in every 12 foreign package holiday booked in the UK is now a cruise – up from one in every 26 in 1999.

It also showed that more than a third of all cruises cost less than £1,000 and cruise holidays will be even better value this year.

The average price of a cruise last year rose by six per cent to £1,409, with 35% costing under £1,000 and nearly 60% less than £1,500.

The Mediterranean continues to be the top cruise destination but Northern/Western Europe overtook the Caribbean to be second favourite in 2008.

The biggest fall was a halving in the number of passengers cruising the Red Sea, Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean. But this trend could be reversed with the start of Royal Caribbean International cruises from Dubai in 2010.

Alaska also suffered a fall in popularity with UK cruise numbers falling for the first time ion five years. This downward trend is forecast to continue this year due to cruise lines cutting capacity on the back of a high passenger tax and “onerous” operating regulations.

The numbers taking Nile cruises rose by 36% to more than 39,000 while river cruises outside Europe also increased by 20%. But this failed to offset a sharp fall in the number of European river cruises taken so that the overall UK river cruise passenger total fell by almost nine per cent to 107,000.

The report confirmed an 11% increase in the number of UK cruise passengers last year to almost 1.5 million (1.477,000) – the third successive year of double digit growth.

PSA director Bill Gibbons said: “Ten new cruises ships will be launched this year, with another 29 on order through to 2012.

“These include ships dedicated to the UK market such as P&O Cruises’ Azura, Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabethand Celebrity Cruises’Celebrity Eclipse, all of which launch in 2010.

“Although the dramatic growth of the last few years is likely to subside in the near future, we remain confident of continued passenger growth.”