Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein said in a recent interview that Royal Caribbean's newest megaships, Allure and Oasis of the Seas, are drawing a much younger age group than traditionally seen.
On an overall basis the average age of an RCI cruiser is 44. ... But on Oasis and Allure, the average age of people booking and taking trips is 39 or 40. We're seeing a much heavier family involvement on these ships. I believe the family vacation experience on these ships is competitive with anything that exists on land.
In addition to younger people going on a cruise, Goldstein was convinced that overseas cruising (outside the United States) is a place of tremendous growth for the company. In fact, next summer, Royal Caribbean will have 11 of their 22 ships in Europe.
The biggest trend in the cruise industry right now is globalization. That is what's happening. For the first 30 years of the cruise industry as we know it, the American market was very dominant, and although marketing took place in other countries, particularly the U.K., it was limited. For the most part, people had to travel long distances to get on cruise ships and they were mostly occupied by U.S. customers. In the last 10 years, that has started to change in a meaningful way.
