North America has been the perennial leader in cruising for so many years now but Royal Caribbean's Chairman Richard Fain thinks that will change. During the launch of Celebrity Cruise's newest ship (Royal Caribbean owns Celebrity Cruises), Fain made this profound prediction, "Next year, the rest of the world will book more cruises than North America".
Given how Royal Caribbean has distributed its fleet in recent years, it's really no surprise. Half of Royal Caribbean's fleet is based in Europe. In addition, Royal Caribbean is adding capacity in Asia and Australia and they're also opening sales offices in the countries from which its ships will cruise.
With high airfares, many North Americans chose not to cruise in Europe this year, and many believe the strength in the Alaska market is a result of that reluctance.
