There was a Wave season this year after
all, according to Cruise Holidays.
Bookings were 68%
higher than in 2006, pushing optimism about the industry to a
three-year high, according to a survey of Cruise Holidays'
franchise locations taken from Jan. 1 to March 31.
Cruise Holidays,
the cruise-only franchise network, released the third installment
of its annual Travel Trends Survey this month.
The positive
findings about Wave season contrasted with analysts' reports and
cruise lines' first-quarter earnings, which suggested the 2007 Wave
was slow and that pricing only began to improve after
March.
Cruise Holidays
franchise owners were also more optimistic about their business
this year than last, as 39% said they were "very optimistic," up
from 21% in 2006.
Nearly two-thirds
(64.6%) of Cruise Holidays agencies reported that Europe cruise
bookings were up, 51.9% said Mexico and Alaska bookings were up and
34.2% said they had seen an increase in Caribbean
bookings.
Much of 2007's
improvement can be attributed to a relatively flat 2006.
"In terms of
bookings we are substantially up over last year, more than 30%,"
said Bud Smead of Cruise Holidays of Arvada, Colo. "For us, 2005
was fairly strong, and 2006 was down slightly. So in 2007 we're
slightly up over 2005, substantially up over 2006."
The survey also
revealed that the predominant product is the cruise of six days or
more, accounting for 82% of all cruises booked so far this
year.
The top two
trends, according to the results, were that Europe bookings were up
over last year and that travelers were more confident about
traveling farther away from home than before.
Europe, combining
the Mediterranean and the Baltic, was the third-most popular
destination, behind the Caribbean and Alaska. Among Caribbean
itineraries, franchise owners revealed that of the top five, 57.7%
were seven-day trips, compared with 16.7% in the four- and five-day
category.
The Caribbean is
still the most popular cruise destination, with 46.7% of bookings,
but that's down from 60.8% last year.
That percentage
has whittled as capacity has been sent not only to Europe but to
Hawaii (where the percentage of bookings jumped from 3.7% to 5%)
and the Mexican Riviera (from 5.6% to 6.4%). Alaska remained in
second place but slipped from 20.6% to 19.4%.
For the first
time, Cruise Holidays asked its franchise owners about the average
cost of popular cruises. The 12-day Mediterranean cruises got the
best per day rates, $250 per person, followed by Alaska at $234 and
the Caribbean at $158.
The findings were
more positive than those of Bank of America analyst Michael Savner,
whose most recent travel agent survey indicated "subtle
improvement" in April after a "dismal March."
It was also
rosier than the cruise lines' reports.
Royal Caribbean
Cruise Lines and NCL Corp. have both said that Wave season had been
weak. RCCL said its first-quarter results were disappointing after
a strong fall performance.
Carnival Corp.
reported mixed first-quarter results, saying that bookings from
early January through early February had been up over 2006 but were
less than its 2007 capacity increase.
To contact reporter Johanna Jainchill, send e-mail to [email protected].