Cruise bookings in the US for 2021 have risen sharply in the past few weeks and three of four passengers whose cruise had been cancelled due o the coronavirus pandemic have accepted credit towards future cruise, a media reports said.
“In the past 45 days — as multiple cruise ships had serious COVID-19 outbreaks onboard — the cruise booking site CruiseCompete.com saw a 40% increase in its bookings for 2021 over its 2019 bookings,” BusinessInsider.com said on its website.
“A recent report from UBS also found that 76% of the people who had a canceled cruise in 2020 have chosen to accept credit towards a future cruise in 2021 as opposed to 24% who accepted a refund,” the same source stated.
Both are good news for the cruise industry that has been badly hit by the pandemic. Recovery of the demand is one of the key questions that the industry faces in the months to come.
Although credits towards future cruises are debt on the balance sheets of the cruise shipping companies, these do not put stress on their liquidity as the debt will be cleared by performing cruises rather than by settlements in cash.
