Increasingly more travellers are opting for cruise holidays, as airport strikes and operator liquidation makes the long-established package-holiday too uncertain.
An ever-increasing number of people are deciding on cruise holidays after a poor year for the airline business makes air travel too unreliable, with the risk of airport shut-downs or bankrupt travel agents making holiday-makers apprehensive regarding booking.
Cruise Holidays: The Facts
Figures from the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) demonstrate that 1.65 million Brits are anticipated to prefer cruising this year – 50 percent more than the figure recorded in ten years ago.
Agents like Cruise Direct, last year’s winner of UK Cruise Holidays Agent of the year, have witnessed an expansion in bookings owing to the reasurance offered by cruise holidays.
And even though cruising holiday may look more secure it is additionally essential to remember to {make reservations with an ATOL protected company, like Cruise Direct, in order to ensure that no money is lost should a travel supplier go bust.
An increasing number of possibilities in cruise holidays have also helped boost the increase in reservations, as the operators of cruise holidays now present a broad selection of options for cruise holidays departing from UK ports like Southampton, Dover, Portsmouth, Newcastle and Liverpool. Presently there are now nineteen services for cruise holidays sailing straight from British ports this summer, enabling holidaymakers anxious about disruption to steer clear of airports overall.
This should serve as a warning to air travel companies to acquire ATOL protection in order to compete in the midst of the fresh wave of fans of cruise holidays.Major firms have long been ATOL protected for all services – as well as package holidays and cruising holidays, but subsequent to the collapse of Sun4U, which left 1,200 stuck abroad, and Goldtrail, which affected the holiday plans of 50,000 people, many are unsure of who to sign up with.
And the rivalry between air and cruise holidays are set to intensify as cruising operators offer holidays to countless popular package vacation spots, with the most favoued cruising destination being the Mediteranean.
An appetite for luxurious cruise holidays to northern Europe additionally points to a change in the economy since more consumers seem to have money to spend on luxury cruising.
Our Thoughts on Cruise Holidays
The boost in bookings could indicate that the further significance in cruise holidays possibly will be here to stay, seeing that figures from The Cruise Review show that 60 percent of passengers go on two or more cruises a year which they think is down to exceptional service and the broad range of facilities accessible while cruising. This may well suggest that since travellers have experienced the advantages, they could begin to ignore package holiday deals in preference for cruise holidays.