TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Cruises used to be known as the more exclusive discerning mature traveller experiences, but over the past few years cruises have been changing their course of action to ensure that they tap different market segments, especially the GenZ market, setting their mark on boarding cruise ships. Lakshmi Durai, CEO, CruiseXplore, shares the latest trends in cruise tourism with TRAVTALK.
Cruise tourism used to be a niche segment, mainly one that was enjoyed by more mature travellers. However, this has changed by leaps and bounds over the past few years as the cruise tourism industry started to attract more younger generation travellers with their new excursions.
The pandemic did dampen the industry for a short period of time. However, the cruise industry planned a more sustainable approach by introducing new trends for the industry, including adopting new technology that would continue with its connectivity onboard no matter wherever they cruise.
According to Lakshmi Durai, CEO, CruiseXplore, cruise tourism has made an amazing return with a new game plan for its travellers. “The comeback of cruising was much more than our expectation in 2022. Though the year started with some geo-political challenges in addition to the pandemic, the summer demand for cruising started picking up well by around April 2022 and we had a great return to cruising last summer. It was a welcome return and we expect more of the pent-up demand to come in 2023,” says Durai.
Luxury cruising experiences
She reiterates that among the key trends that she has witnessed and foresees is the increase in bookings of both luxury and ultra-luxury segments. “Luxury and ultra-luxury cruise segments are doing very well and we have excellent forward bookings for the year 2023 for both luxury and ultra-luxury cruises. Also the passionate cruisers opt for longer cruises of even more than one week, which is a new trend. Another trend we notice is that travellers want to experience new and unique destinations. So, the cruise liners are coming up with new itineraries for the travellers to explore new and unique destinations,” says Durai.
Social media promotion
When it comes to exploring new destinations, cruise operators had to think of modern and unique ways to not only attract the niche market but also to attract the younger thrill seekers, millennials, who will post every single escape on social media. According to Durai, cruise liners have upped their technology to include specialised wifi packages that will encourage the younger generation.
