Germans are booking slightly shorter cruises this year than in 2013, while the prices of river cruises fell sharply, a study conducted by e-hoi.de, the online cruise retailer, shows.

Germans prefer shorter cruises, with average duration at 9.8 days compared to 10.1 days last year in ocean cruises and seven days compared to 7.9 in river cruises.

A 24% reduction in the average price of river cruises to €805 has increased the demand for them; in ocean cruises the average price only fell €5 to €1,261.

While reduction in the average duration of the cruises has contributed to the fall, the website notes that excluding this factor, river cruises experienced a 14% fall in average price to €110. By contrast, in ocean cruises, the figure increased by €2 to €117.

Budget price category accounted for 72% of all the river cruises sold through the site, a marked increase from 54% in the 2013 review. In ocean cruising, the budget segment lost two percentage points, to 66%, while standard price category gained three percentage points and accounted for 21% of the surveyed bookings.

Those booking cruises in the budget price category averaged 51 years in age, a full 10 years younger than the average cruise clientele in the survey. However, the numbers of children on cruises grew by 40% and they made up 7% of all passengers in the survey.