Cruise bookings hit all-time high
By: Louise Goldsbury, Cruise Weekly

Aussies and New Zealanders have embraced cruising in record numbers, with August rating as the biggest month in some cruise lines' history.

P&O Cruises
A record 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders booked a P&O Cruises' holiday last month - the largest number to book in a single month since the line was founded. The number of bookings was more than double those made in the same month last year.

This increase was not simply due to newly released cruises last month - the booked cruises have been on sale since January but were boosted by an earlybird sale in August.

"People are realising they have to book early, even for short cruises, so they are booking about eight months ahead," said a P&O spokesman.

The number of passengers booked to sail from Brisbane doubled in August compared with last year, while Sydney departures saw a massive 62% increase.

Meanwhile, greater capacity meant Pacific Sun bookings from Auckland increased 213% in August over the same month last year. Jenny Lourey, senior vice president of Carnival Australia, which represents P&O, said the cold weather had clearly stimulated sales' busiest week on record, and 31 August was the biggest single booking day in the company's history.

Oceania Cruises
Oceania credits this success to the culmination of promotional offers on its European Collection, with 32 of next year's voyages already sold out.

"The demand and pricing strength Oceania Cruises is experiencing showcases the resilience of the cruise industry in the wake of a challenging economy and demonstrates once again how important vacations are to consumers," said Frank Del Rio, chairman and CEO of the line's parent company, Prestige Cruise Holdings.

Royal Caribbean Cruises
Strengthening consumer confidence has also been witnessed in the local office of Royal Caribbean Cruises.

"August was another big month for us, with demand continuing to move onto 2010 sailings" said Adam Armstrong, commercial manager, Royal Caribbean Australia.

"We have very little space remaining for 2009 so our customers are starting to look further ahead, which is encouraging."

Next year's bookings are "extremely healthy, so we're reviewing pricing on a daily basis, sometimes hourly," he said.

"Our ex-Sydney program continues to outperform our expectations and other destinations like Europe, Alaska and the Caribbean are gaining momentum."

Classic International Cruises, which operates Athena, reports that August 2009 bookings for its sixth successive Australian season this coming summer exceeded levels in August 2008.

"Of particular interest is that the number of bookings from repeat passengers is higher than any previous Australian cruise season," said Classic International Cruises managing director (Australia), Grant Hunter.

Interest in river cruising has also exploded in recent months, according to Christian Schweitzer, of Avalon Waterways.

"For people booking to travel in 2009, July of this year was our highest month on record [since 2004] for bookings; August was our second highest booking month. "For travel in 2010, August was the second highest month on record."

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