Teri West
CLIA released its annual State of the Global Cruise Industry report last week, illustrating the industry's health and trajectory, from its scale (a record 37.2 million people cruised in 2025) to more intricate points (63% of Gen Z passengers went on a shore excursion last year).
CLIA also analyzed Canadian cruisers sailing from U.S. ports, and there wasn't much of a decrease at all in 2025, compared with the severe decline in Canadian visitors to the U.S.
Canadians represented 4.3% of all cruisers embarking at U.S. ports, compared with 4.5% in 2024. It's far from the 25.4% decrease in Canadian resident travel to the U.S. last year, as reported by Statistics Canada.
Another intriguing data point in the CLIA report was about solo travelers. They represented 6% of all cruisers in 2023 and 12% in 2024. But in 2025, solo travel dropped back down to 7%.
Earlier this year, I wrote about how cruise lines aren't necessarily inclined to cater to solo travelers because doing so can mean leaving revenue on the table. If a cabin for two sails with just one passenger, that's one less passenger spending money onboard.
It's interesting that the rate of solo travel is fluctuating so much annually. At least one cruise line plans to welcome more of it: Holland America Line announced last week that it is adding solo cabins to its fleet as part of a $500 million refurbishment of six ships. And for the first time at Holland America Line, solo staterooms will have balconies.
I'll leave you with one more item from CLIA's report to ponder.
In a survey of travel advisors, CLIA found that luxury is the cruise segment where advisors are seeing the most booking growth compared with last year. But advisors are seeing almost as much growth in premium bookings.
Fifty-three percent of respondents reported seeing growth or significant growth in luxury bookings, and 51% said the same for premium.
Premium was also the segment with the lowest rates of booking decreases for advisors surveyed.
We've reported on the strength of the luxury cruise market, especially during this year's Wave season, as new luxury ships have opened for bookings and wealthy Americans have felt comfortable spending.
The premium space has seen some new ships recently, including the Celebrity Xcel, Star Princess and Brilliant Lady, but fewer ships in the segment are coming in 2026. Clearly, however, it's not a space that advisors should be overlooking.