7nt Orlando Stay & Bahamas & Perfect Day from Port Canaveral
Date: 16 Aug 2024
Duration: 11 nights
Ship: Utopia of the Seas
Line: Royal Caribbean
GfK Ascent-MI chief executive Sarah Smalley spoke at the TTA Worldchoice conference held at Heathrow. One of her main points was that UK travel agents were missing the boat on 8-13 night holidays.
She said sails of holiday of this length have increased 25% in bookings for summer 2010, and that the bookings are largely being made direct with cruise companies or through websites like socruise rather than through agents.
This new trend results from cruise passengers being time-poor, possibly because in a recession they prefer not to take too much time off work when economic conditions are volatile and this means the 8-13 night holiday is likely to continue to be a growth sector right through 2010.
She also said that ‘consumer confidence has started to turn a corner’ and that … ‘for the last three months, agents have been increasing their revenues’ but she pointed out that the travel industry's chance of benefitting from the World Cup in South Africa would depend on consumer confidence. There has already been a setback for the cruise industry, after the local government refused to licence several moored cruise ships to act as ‘hotels’ during the World Cup because they didn’t want to deprive hotels on shore of the chance to accommodate football-mad visitors.
Date: 16 Aug 2024
Duration: 11 nights
Ship: Utopia of the Seas
Line: Royal Caribbean
£2,299 OUTSIDE
£2,379 BALCONY
Date: 31 Jul 2024
Duration: 8 nights
Ship: Valiant Lady
Line: Virgin Voyages
£2,649 OUTSIDE
£2,799 BALCONY
Date: 20 Feb 2025
Duration: 17 nights
Ship: Sun Princess
Line: Princess Cruises
£3,449 OUTSIDE
£3,579 BALCONY
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Ship: Sky Princess
Line: Princess Cruises
£1,273 BALCONY
£1,371 OUTSIDE
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Ship: Marella Explorer 2
Line: Marella Cruises
£1,482 OUTSIDE
£1,739 BALCONY
Date: 3 Feb 2024
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Ship: Pride of America
Line: Norwegian Cruise Line
£2,027 OUTSIDE
£2,473 BALCONY