More than 10 million people have sailed with cruise lines around the world since the gradual resumption of sailing from June 2020.
According to the latest update by Bermello Ajamil & Partners, a Miami-headquartered company that is monitoring the movements of cruise companies globally, an estimated 10.2 million cruisers have taken to the seas for a leisure holiday across 70 cruise lines, big and small, until the end of March 2022.
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The number of people cruising globally was relatively flat for the 12 months between June 2020 and May 2021, but then began a significant upward trend in the second half of the year, through to December 2021 by when there were around 235,000 cruisers per month. Cruise passenger numbers fell slightly in January and February of 2022, coinciding with the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but have recouped in March to sit at around 260,000, and are projected to reach 300,000/month by May and maintain that point until July 2022.
Bermello Ajamil & Partners has determined that 81 percent of cruise berths will be utilised in April 2022.
Those figures are expected to climb further as new cruise capacity is expected to be introduced this year by the likes of Mexico’s Vidanta Cruises, Ambassador Cruise Line, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and P&O Australia. An increase in the number of passengers permitted onboard cruise ships will also see those numbers jump higher.
As of 31 March 2022, and based on the Health & Safety protocols of each individual cruise operator, more than 34% of cruise lines operating require guests be fully vaccinated. Some 28% have a mandate for passengers 12 years and over to be vaccinated, about 22% have a mandate that guests aged 5-and-over be vaccinated, similarly a fraction over 6% of guests 18+ and 3% of guests 16+ must be vaccinated.
A relatively low 6.3% of cruise lines back in operation have no vaccination mandate in place.
View Bermello Ajamil & Partners’ ‘Cruise Recovery Dashboard’ here.