Buoyant optimism and a vibrant outlook in a record year of capacity increases dominated the annual State of the Industry Debate, with top cruise executives agreeing that a banner Wave Season was boosting bookings and yields.
Pricing remains competitive, however. "We're selling cruises at 50 percent of what they're worth," said Bob Dickinson, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. The execs agreed that current booking projections were very positive for the year.
"There's pent-up demand," said Albert Peter, CEO of Silversea Cruises Ltd. "Our yields are up by about 5 percent. We're starting to pull back some of the discounts."
"For the year as a whole our expectations remain unchanged," added Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Although Norwegian Cruise Line currently has no three- and four-day cruises, nor a Caribbean summer itinerary, "we're 20 percent ahead of our volume last year," said Colin Veitch, NCL's president and CEO.
Whether direct bookings will reach 25 percent of total bookings by 2006, a prediction made by Credit Suisse equity research analyst Scott Barry, the issue of direct and Internet bookings was a lively topic.
"As long as I have capacity, I want to get bookings anyway I can," Conroy said. "That the Internet offers a cheaper price is a myth. To us, it's opening another valve."
To appeal to young passengers, "the biggest drive is the Internet," Dickinson said. "There are two new generations, Gen-X and Gen-Y, and they want to take the matter into their own hands."
European charters, rather than increased airlift from the United States to San Juan, were predicted to boost southern Caribbean bookings. And the panel predicted the number of U.S. homeports and exotic new calls will increase.