Articles tagged “cruise lines”

With many global markets showing healthy signs of growth and consumer and business confidence high, we expect the travel industry to benefit from a solid year of macroeconomic growth in 2018.

When it comes to environmental impact, major cruise lines have a hard time sleeping at night. The smaller ones only occasionally wake up in a cold sweat.

Could cruise lines actually benefit from stricter regulations on American travel to Cuba? Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio thinks so — and with even more cruises scheduled to the island next year, he'll find out if he's right.

The cruise industry in the Caribbean quickly pivoted as it headed into its busiest season. While cruise lines might be able to scrape by relatively unharmed — it's easy to change ports when something goes wrong — the negative impact on destinations missing out on cruise sailings will be felt for years.

It's hard to see how other airlines, hotels and cruise lines don't follow JetBlue's lead in issuing waivers on change fees and cancellations for itineraries to Cuba given the U.S. government's ill-conceived warning for travel to the Caribbean island. The warning looks like it will help reverse the Obama administration's loosening of restrictions on U.S. citizen travel to Cuba.

Norwegian's results are more evidence that the cruise industry is booming despite the downturn in the up-and-coming China market. By using language like "the stars aligned," however, executives sound like they're trying to lower expectations that the good luck will stick around.

Royal Caribbean Cruises has stuck by its plan to avoid lowering fares to fill up ships, and that strategy appears to be working. But the cruise operator is benefitting from a lot of other factors right now too.

Cruise.co's mix of reviews and vacations has helped fuel its rise. Its private equity owners obviously want it to get even bigger and to do so it needs to buy up the competition.

Here's the lowdown in a FAQ on what the new U.S. policy toward Cuba means for travel companies and travelers alike.

Travel industry policies toward Cuba have not transitioned smoothly from Point A to Point B over the last three years, and the upcoming Trump administration fine print will likely change things anew.