TRAVEL: Luxury liners making big waves with holidaymakers

THE early booking season has been a good one for cruise holiday providers with bookings up as much as 46 per cent for some agents.

And it seems cruise holidaymakers like a bit of on-board luxury as Irish cruise specialist, e-travel.ie, says almost 58 per cent of its sales are for four-star ships and 35 per cent for five-star liners.

The luxury cruise liners are becoming the preferred option for many customers, but while the purse strings are loosening, enduring lessons learned during the recession means that value for money is still a priority.

Modern cruise ships are often referred to as floating hotels, and the latest liners are more like floating cities. Holidaymakers can choose new massive ships like Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, which can carry almost 8,000 passengers and crew, or go for a smaller intimate river cruise where there’s less than 100 passengers.

Key statistics show just how much the luxury cruise business is growing with the global value of preliminary ship orders until 2022 now standing at an incredible $26 billion.

An estimated 35,000 passengers from Ireland are expected to cruise this year out of 23 million worldwide and 22 ocean, river and specialty cruise ships will hit the water in 2016.

Eight more ships are scheduled to arrive in 2017, another eight in 2018, and six in 2019.

The average age of a cruiser is 49 and 62 per cent of them want super-fast Wi-Fi.

The order books are already filling up for 2020 and 2021 as experienced passengers want to check out the newest ships on the way from Richard Branson’s Virgin Cruise Line and the rapidly growing Crystal Cruises.

According to latest figures from e-travel.ie 42 per cent of Irish cruisers are now under 40. This represents a 20 per cent increase since 2014 and shows the rapidly changing profile of cruise passengers from Ireland.

The average price paid in 2015 for a fly cruise package was €1,476 in 2015 versus €1,383 in 2014 and stateroom sales breakdown to approximately 65 per cent balconies, 28 per cent inside and seven per cent ocean view.

So far in 2016 the trend seems to be upwardly mobile to the five and six star luxury liners like Celebrity, Silversea, Cunard and Crystal Cruises.

The e-travel Cruise department can be contacted on 01-4081999 or www.e-travel.ie.