Pondering cruise growth conspiracy theories
by peremukIn 1980, the U.S. cruise biz catered to less than a million and a half passengers — and that was at the height of The Love Boat buzz. By 1990, that number was up to 3.6 million, and 15 years later it’s over 10 million. What’s to account for the surge? More leisure time? Hardly. Americans are working more now than they ever have.
Disposable income? Are you kidding, with gas over $2 a gallon? Baby boomers getting older and not being able to hoist their own packs anymore? Nope, cruise demographics have fallen over the past decade, with the average age now down around 50.
We put it down to a confluence of events. First, a ton of new ships were built over the past decade, most so much bigger and so much more technologically amazing than their predecessors that they were almost guaranteed to attract attention. Second, all those ships were in competition with each other, which meant cruises were selling for insanely low prices. Third, some cruise lines hatched really, really good advertising campaigns (yo, Royal Caribbean, good job). And fourth, the world went completely NUTS, with terrorism and wars and famine and misery and global warming and invading armies and terror alert levels and duct tape and who knows what all else; and in an environment like that, who wants to go trekking off on their own? It’s the “cruise ship as protective bubble” syndrome. Or, maybe people just like to cruise. That’s another theory.
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