While cruises may seem like they are often the choice of your grandparents or parents, some cruise lines are seeing an increase in young people taking to the seas to spend their free time.
One cruise line seeing this trend is Virgin Voyages, and the company’s president and chief experience officer, Nirmal Saverimuttu, says there are a number of reasons why.
Saverimuttu spoke with CBS News about the uptick in younger generations, Millennials and Generation Z, who are finding cruises to be a better bang for their buck than other vacations.
In response to the trend, cruise lines have begun working on getting younger, as Saverimuttu says that young consumers are now the fastest-growing customer base they have.
“They want to indulge. They want to go out and see the world and travel. But they want to do it in a way that’s more aligned with their modern preferences,” Saverimuttu told the media outlet.
When it comes to the changes being made, Virgin Voyages has looked to make its cruises more “relaxed,” with Saverimuttu sharing that younger consumers aren’t looking for the formalities of things like dress codes that often come with more luxury offerings. Instead, Saverimuttu says, “people want a more youthful-feeling experience” while still getting luxury offerings.
Another aspect that cruise lines can offer is their affordability. With prices for everything from eggs to airline tickets having skyrocketed throughout the last year, consumers are now looking to save money however they can, and being able to travel the world at a low price has made cruises more appealing.
“Cruises are great value for money. And you put those two things together — great experiences and great value for money — and I think that’s why you’re seeing the boom in cruising,” Saverimuttu said.
The pandemic disrupted almost every industry, but some, like the travel industry, saw the impacts of shutdowns and social distancing more than others.
With cruise lines fighting to stay afloat while they were unable to operate for some time, experts have since predicted a cruising boom this year.
“Cruising is back in a big way. We expect a lot more people to book cruises in 2023 as several new ships have entered the market,” Paula Twidale, AAA Senior Vice President of Travel, said in a survey earlier this year. “We already saw this in November, which proved to be a record-breaking month for cruise bookings. For many cruise companies, Black Friday was the single largest booking day in history.”
The survey from AAA found that 52% of Americans were more likely to go on a cruise this year than they were before the pandemic, another sign that their popularity is on the rise.
“It’s a great thing to see, a lot of more younger consumers choosing cruising,” Saverimuttu said.
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