Rapidly increasing cost of food is impacting the cruise industry as well, figures released by the three largest listed companies in the business show.

In the 12 months to 30 November 2019 that was the end of its final financial year before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Carnival group carried  12.87 million passengers and paid $1.08 billion for food. This makes $84 per passenger. However, in the first quarter of its present financial year, the company carried 1.01 million passengers, but its food bill amounted to $136 million that was equal to $136 per passengers.

Royal Caribbean Group carried 6.55 million passengers in 2019 and its food bill came to a total of $584 million that year, which was equal to $89 per passenger. This increased to $136 per passenger in the first quarter of 2022, when the company carried 734,000 passengers and paid $100 million for food.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NCLH) showed an even steeper increase. In 2019, the group’s ships carried 2.69 million passengers and it paid $223 million for food, equal to $83 per passenger. In the first quarter of the year, the per passenger figure had increased to $204 as NCLH carried a total of 191,000 passengers and paid $39 million for food