There’s no doubt that the cruise industry is picking up steam again, but by exactly how much?
Thanks to Similarweb, an internet analytics company, we now know search traffic is indeed rising across the websites of five sampled brands: Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean International.
As seen in the graph below, consumer interest in all five companies plummeted at the start of 2020 and remained flatlined through the end of the year. By June 2021, however, more than 16.5 million combined hits reflected the highest peak in some time, even if it pales in comparison to pre-pandemic numbers.
Similarweb’s graph illustrates consumers’ increased interest in five of the top cruise lines.
Credit: 2021 Similarweb
For instance, the contrast between June 2019 and June 2021 traffic shows a marked overall decline with Carnival (down by 18%), but Princess clocks in at quite a bit lower (-34%). Royal Caribbean declined by -41%; Celebrity by -54%; and Norwegian by -61%.
Nonetheless, Carnival led the pack this June with 6.37 million hits, followed by Royal Caribbean (4.14 million), Norwegian (2.6 million), Princess (2.1 million) and Celebrity (1.27 million). A strong sustained interest in Carnival’s upcoming 2021 launch of its new Mardi Gras vessel likely buoyed the line above the rest in 2020, as well as at the start of this year.
Perhaps most interesting are the statistics revealing which companies lead in growth from May to June 2021. Royal Caribbean — with its new Odyssey of the Seas on the way this year — accelerated past Carnival, increasing by 40%. Still not far behind, Carnival was boosted by 30%, Celebrity by 23%, Norwegian by 13% and Princess by 10%.
Both Celebrity and Princess are also welcoming new ships this year, including ones carried over from 2020. Meanwhile, Norwegian has no new ships scheduled for 2021.
One final data point gathered by Similarweb is the number of global searches for vaccination and cruise-related keywords. Such searches reached an all-time high over the last 12 months with 69,100 total — a 429% increase over the annual average of only 13,000 searches.
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