The proportion of passengers who return to cruise on ships of Carnival Corporation & plc brands has increased to 68% last year from 54% in 2006, but in absolute terms the number of first timers has not declined thanks to the growth of the total volume, said Howard S. Frank, said Vice Chairman, Chief Operating Officer and Member of Executive Committee of the world’s largest cruise shipping group.
“In 2006… we sailed with 7 million passengers on a worldwide basis. In 2012, we sailed with an excess of 10 million passengers on a worldwide basis. What's interesting is that repeat cruises in the left-hand side, in 2006, were 54%, that is people who come back and cruise with us. We've increased that to 68%,” Frank told the shareholders’ meeting of the dual listed group in London last week.
“Why is that important to our business? Because repeat cruises are our best customers. They understand cruising, how to have fun on a ship, how to enjoy it and they pay the best prices for our cabins and they spend the most on board. So having this enumerator of 68% of your 10 million passengers that are repeat cruisers, is an ongoing revenue stream for us.”
“It's very important. And as we've grown this in that six-year period, that endures to our benefit. At the same time, you can see our first time cruisers have come down from 46% to 32%. But in reality, they haven't come down at all because it's still 3 million passengers of -- 3 million passengers in 2006 were new cruisers. It's the same 3 million passengers on an absolute basis in 2010. So what is good, is you need to get cruisers to your ship the first time so they come back and repeat, so we need to continue to drive new business for us, new cruisers, introducing new people to cruising.”
