The US-based company, which also owns the Celebrity Cruises and Silversea brands, said booking volumes during the second quarter of 2024 were higher than during the same period last year and it was achieving “record” pricing levels.
Jason Liberty, president and chief executive of Royal Caribbean Group, said during a conference call with analysts that its European cruises were also in a “record booked position in both rate and volume and continued strength in pricing”.
The group’s European itineraries account for around 28% of its overall capacity during the summer peak months of July to September.
Liberty added that the cruise giant was now taking more bookings for 2025 than for the rest of its 2024 schedule.
“The strength in the commentary that we talk about on pricing and pricing increasing, it very much applies to 2025 and beyond,” said Liberty. “We feel very good. We’re in a very strong book position for 2025 – pricing is up and increasing are the trends that we continue to see.”
Liberty also stressed the group’s intention to take a “greater share” of the rapidly growing €1.9 trillion global holiday market in the coming years.
“Our plan to capitalise on this opportunity is well grounded in a set of underlying strategies,” added Liberty. “The powerful foundation of our leading global brand and a proven formula for success: moderate capacity growth, moderate yield growth and strong cost discipline and the best people in the world to execute on at all.”
This year’s strong demand helped Royal Caribbean achieve a net profit of $854 million in the second quarter of 2024 – up from a profit of $459 million during the same period in 2023. Net yields rose by 13.3% year-on-year as load factor on its ships increased by three percentage points to 108%.
Total passenger ticket revenue went up by 18% year-on-year to $2.89 billion during the quarter, while onboard revenue jumped by 13% to $1.22 billion over the same period.
“The second quarter exceeded our already elevated expectations,” said Liberty. “We have seen an incredibly robust booking and pricing environment across all our key itineraries, which is not only setting us up for success in the future periods, but also contributed to the outperformance in the second quarter.”
Liberty also highlighted recently launched ships such as Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas, as well as Silversea’s Silver Ray, which has attracted “a higher mix of younger guests than the rest of the fleet”.
Other ships on the way include Celebrity Xcel in late 2025 and Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas, which is due to debut in the middle of next year.
When asked why Royal Caribbean’s prices were still rising when there was evidence of “softening” in prices for land-based holidays, Liberty said this was due to a “20% value gap to land-based vacation”.
“You get a lot of bang for the buck when you’re travelling with our with our brands,” added Liberty. “I think that value gap is potentially shielding us from some of that noise that you’re hearing from land-based operators.”
