“On less-wired ships, passengers can avail themselves of a growing number of iPhone apps like Always Be Cruising (free), which allows users to network with one another onboard a ship.”
Click here for full story in NY Times.
The new ship is scheduled for delivery in 2012, following the 2011 launch of the Carnival Magic reports Seatrade Insider. This is big news as it ends a near two year drought in new ship orders and helps validate the cruise industries strong position with consumers and continued dedication to growth. The current economic environment also helped Carnival procure an excellent price, at $200,000 per lower berth compared to $202,000 for the Carnival Magic and $259,000 for RCI’s Allure of the Seas (sister ship of the Oasis).
Followers of my blog may have noticed a drop off in the quantity of posts. Part of the reason is due to having less time, related to my full time employment and part time teaching of business statistics.
Readers might like to know I am also posting consumer related cruise posts at Planet Eye Traveler – the most recent being my journey to see the rock star of the cruise ships – Oasis of the Seas. You can read the story at http://planeteyetraveler.com/2009/11/15/my-oasis-of-the-seas-story/.
Of course, keep coming to Cruise Market Watch for updates on cruise industry trends and statistics.
I launched www.CruiseMarketWatch.com last August as a way to highlight my research and marketing skills in a practical and demonstrable way. Since then, the site has had 54,000 page views from 14,500 unique visitors and ranks first for the search term “Cruise Market.” I have been published in the Travel Trade Gazette and Cruise Shipping Miami Today, attended the Cruise Shipping Miami convention, surveyed over 600 travel agents and created an iPhone app for cruisers. Not bad for a part-time pleasure. But perhaps most importantly, it has helped me stay emotionally connected to the love of my life, to whom the site is dedicated, as she travels the world.
I started out knowing I wouldn’t out scoop the cruise sites that post news releases onto the web. If it already exists, it’s not unique – so why should you visit? I try to find cruise trends that have an impact from a marketing perspective and actually write something insightful. Moreover, I provide market data for free that simply can’t be found anywhere else.
Since my passion is applying analytical and strategic thinking to the development of remarkable products and promotions, I’d like to share five Google Analytics site statistics from the past year.
Top 5 most read blog posts
Top 5 blog posts that haven’t been discovered yet (personal opinion)
Top visiting countries of origin
Top 5 referring sites
Top 5 keywords searched
I hope each visitor has been rewarded for their time and taken away something of value. I have made a lot of new friends this past year. I would love to hear your feedback and can be reached for any reason at any time at my personal email address ryanwahlstrom@gmail.com.
for completing our Cruise Market Watch panel survey. Results will be posted here sometime over the next several weeks. In the meanwhile review previous surveys below. You can leave additional thoughts or comments in the area provided at the bottom of this page.
Happy cruising!
Download Cruise Pulse April 2009 – International Edition
Download Cruise Pulse February 2009 – Second Edition
Download Cruise Pulse January 2009 – First Edition
The good news about Cruise Market Watch is making the rounds and I wanted to share with you the excitement.
CSM Today, the official daily newsletter of Cruise Shipping Miami, highlights conference news, products and events for 5,000 attendees. I was pleased to write the lead article “Travel Agents Should Maximize Entrepreneurial Skills” in the Thursday, March 19, 2009 edition.
TTG’s Knowledge College is a UK based organization dedicated to travel agents. Its Knowledge Cruise courses help travel agents learn about an extensive range of cruise lines and suppliers. It was a privilege to be interviewed on page 15.
Over at RoyalCaribbeanFan.com we recently discussed a wide range of topics related to the business side of cruise industry in its “10 Questions” series.
Dario Rustico, Costa Cruises’ Director, Sales and Marketing of Pacific Asia Operations quoted Cruise Market Watch at the Arabian Travel Market 2009 seminar in Dubai March 24. The 2009 US $24.9 billion global cruise market and 2.4 percent rise (16 million) in global passengers carried were cited.
Lastly, on Gene Sloan’s Cruise Log Blog, we got some buzz going around the topic “Could you spend your retirement years cruising full time?“
The Cruise Ship In Miami (Photo credit: Stuart Herbert)
Seatrade’s Cruise Shipping Miami conference is awesome! Got some great feedback from the State of the Industry and Luxury Cruise conferences which certainly will find its way (cruise value) into this blog (cruise value).
I was introducing myself today as a “cruiseologist.” Why? What is more memorable, “Hi I’m Ryan” or “Hi, I’m Ryan, Cruiseologist”? Silly? Not really. The marketing point is, when you have less than 1 minute to meet someone and make an impression, make it memorable.
This recession is proving the cruise industry incredibly agile and able to successfully cruise past recession island. With an average annual growth rate for nearly two decades of 7.4%, the industry has a history of phenomenal success. Today cruising reaches a much broader market than the retirees of old. While diversification greatly expanded the market, it also exposes the industry to impacts in the mainstream economy.
For those who can take advantage of the tremendous deals being offered, Norwegian Cruise Line has introduced a job loss protection program in its insurance policy. For the one-week period ended March 1, 2009, Carnival recorded the highest number of net weekly bookings in its history.
CruiseMarketWatch.com estimates passengers carried will still increase by 2.6% in 2009.
Navigating four oceans
The industry will continue to chart the navigation of four oceans to cruise up the revenue growth curve.
1. Get consumers to start spending again (Pacific Ocean)
2. Absorb the new build passenger capacity (Atlantic Ocean)
3. Find new cruisers (Arctic Ocean)
4. Get prices moving up (Indian Ocean)
1. Get consumers to start spending again
Tighter consumer budgets mean shorter holidays (cruising to closer destinations), departing from closer homeports, booking closer to departure dates, and less onboard spending at the bar, casino and spa. When these trends reverse, we will have traversed the first ocean. Economists recently surveyed by Reuters forecast a 0.8 percent gain in U.S. gross domestic product during third-quarter of 2009 and 2.0 percent in the fourth-quarter.
2. Absorb the new build passenger capacity
One can’t help but be excited by the development of new and exhilarating ships. Oasis of the Seas, Odyssey, Dream, Equinox, Luminosa, Splendida, Luna, and others have jaw dropping wow factor. Most likely you already know that by the end of 2011 a total of 29 ships with passenger capacity of 70,390 will be added to worldwide fleets. This new capacity is projected to help add 2.4 million cruisers to the annual passengers roles.
3. Find new cruisers
Hotels, resorts and casinos are slashing prices to lure guests and be competitive. Cruise’s continued growth requires reaching out in new and creative ways to acquire market share from the likes of destination spas (such as Celebrity’s spa concierge and spa cabins on Eurodam and Spendor), weddings, family reunions, casinos, and singles.
Ships are sailing full due to the cruise value proposition relative to other vacation options. But we are seeing a higher percentage of former cruisers onboard because they are the ones who understand best the value, and are taking advantage of the aggressive pricing. In the long term, the goal is to find new passengers by maximizing trends in consumer behavior.
4. Get prices moving up
While oil prices remain low, cruise lines can offer striking cost savings for the consumer over comparable land-based alternatives. This is a great strategy for acquisition of market share and the cruise industry is undoubtedly growing its piece of the travel pie in 2009. As more people cruise, more will tell others and they will want to cruise too. The cruise industry is in an enviable position for the imminent economic recovery. This leaves the final stage of re-establishing the upward revenue growth trend – the ability to raise prices in the face of increasing demand and limited supply with positive impact on profit margins.
Long-term prospects are bright; it is an exciting and challenging time to be in the cruise industry. I love a good cliché. So grab the rails, we are riding this storm out. Industry leaders are charting the navigation of the four oceans for future prosperity and the vacation enjoyment of millions.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - JANUARY 04: The 4,000-passenger Disney Dream (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
I’m writing this post from Mexico City – but won’t be away from Cruise long. I’m headed for Acapulco for New Years and will be checking out the port. I’ll return to Miami January 7, 2009 and won’t be able to post again until then.
Looking forward to 2009 I will be focusing my Cruise Market Watch efforts in a couple of primary areas:
1) Each month I will look at one specific market niche where cruise lines can increase penetration, grow market share and revenue. Once the market segment is detailed and sized for potential, I will follow up with thoughts and ideas about “how to win them” such as the “link together and take away strategy,” and “getting your pods chirping.”
2) I will be launching Cruise Pulse sometime in February. This will be a monthly survey panel of travel agents to measure forward booking trends and will augment our Cruise Search Index and Cruise Price Index. All valuable tools for industry watchers, analysts and investors.
3) Of coarse, we will continue to follow industry news from a marketing perspective and update market share and revenue projections.
4) I will also start posting Top 10 monthly cruise deals and “just for fun” cruise related Top 10 lists at http://www.alwaysbecruising.com/blog2/
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the holiday season.
Sincerely,
Ryan Wahlstrom
Miami (Cruise Market Watch) Thursday, December 25 2008, 5:30 a.m. - A photographer responded to two calls of reported Santa Claus sightings onboard the Carnival Destiny, early Thursday morning. After thoroughly checking the area, deputies who were dispatched to the Port of Miami were unable to locate Santa Claus at that time. The cruisers who spotted Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle or simply “Santa” indicated he was headed back to the North Pole lead by his team of eight flying reindeer.
Destiny passengers and crew commented they were pleased by the unexpected visit, explaining they assumed having been returning to port late Christmas Eve Santa would not be able to locate them. As one cruise traveler put it “he knows when you are sleeping, and he knows when you’re awake, it’s frankly amazing.” Kitchen staff noted a half gallon of milk and at least one dozen cookies had gone mysteriously missing.
Later that same morning the Monroe County Sheriff’s Station received additional Santa sighting calls near Key Largo, Florida. Deputies quickly responded and located Santa Claus on the rooftop of a local residence. The deputies were able to track Santa Claus near the neighborhoods for more than twenty minutes, before eventually losing site of him across the Atlantic Ocean south of Tavernier.
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