CruiseLineFans Predict New Cruise Trends for 2010

Online, January 17, 2010 (Newswire.com) - 2010 is a new year full of expectation and concern for the cruise and travel industry, but with careful attention paid to consumer demands, a year that can be a successful one for large and small cruise companies, alike.
Ships versus Exotic Locales: Is the ship or the island/foreign country going to be the ultimate destination for cruisers in 2010? Large cruise companies, like NCL and Royal Caribbean, are confident that the ships are what their customers are interested in; hence the launch in 2009 of Oasis of the Seas and 2010's upcoming launch of Allure of the Seas. Mega ships, with all the amenities and activities it's possible to conceive will continue to be the mainstay of the larger cruise companies going forward into 2010. However, specialized cruise lines are now listening to their customer base and continue to offer more specialized, themed or destination based cruise voyages, where the ship isn't the ultimate destination. Cruise Lines like Azamara Club Cruises, Linbald Expeditions, and Seabourn Yachts, are shifting away the focus from their already exemplary fleets and drilling down on the local regions, customs and people the ships visit.
Social Media: It seemed like everywhere you looked in 2009, someone was talking about tweeting, Twitter, and Facebook. (Sorry MySpace.) Well, 2010 should see a continuation of this expansion in the use of social media networks by your favourite cruise line, agent or journalist. 2010 will be a year in which many of the major brands polish up the way they interact with their customer base, as both customers and corporate employees get used to interacting in this way. Look for discounts, special offers and promotions, as well as a multitude of ways to express your opinion, positive or negative, about your latest cruise vacation or travel experience, and look for them in real-time. Catching a major discount for your next cruise is quite possible just by following CruiseLineFans' Twitter stream or the many other great cruise based tweeters.
Auto Tipping Programs Keelhauled: Most of CruiseLineFans predicted trends for 2010 involve the modification of company policies at the suggestion or demand of its customer base and our next trend development is no different. Customers in the second decade of the 21st century are savvy, internet-friendly, and opinionated. Moreover, their dollar (or other form of currency) is ever more valuable to the cruise and travel companies as they attempt to maximize their share of shrinking profit pools. As a result customers are now able to demand more control over their travel expenditures and we believe that automatic tipping, common to the US cruise market, will become a thing of the past by the end of 2010 for many major, medium size, and luxury cruise lines.
Ships, Ships, and More Ships: 2009 was full of new ships being released into the cruise market and 2010 should be a year to continue that trend. Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas, sister ship to the media-darling Oasis of the Seas, is due in December 2010. The Disney Dream, Norwegian's Epic, the Celebrity Eclipse, Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, and HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam are all expected to float out and offer cruisers a huge range of diverse culinary, activity and accommodation options. The prices for cruise vacations aboard some of the mega ships have been running at about 15-20% above smaller ships in the fleets, but expect some of that premium pricing to subside during 2010, as cruise lines debut more ships and simply must keep those berths filled.

Alex Saint, CEO of CruiseLineFans commented: "There's no doubt that 2010 is going to be an exciting year for the cruise industry as the global economy starts to shake off the malaise of the last 12 months. A number of new ship launches are bound to make pricing ever more competitive and as cruisers research habits become more and more reliant on the internet and social media we're tremendously excited for the prospects of the online cruise sector and in particular our own developments here at CruiseLineFans."

Conclusion: The cruise industry will continue to be filled with extreme competition for passengers, and discounted voyages will be prevalent. The reduction of automatic tipping, an increased focus on regions and destinations and a huge list of novel and incredible on-board ship activities, and the availability of access to this information and special promotions via social networks like Twitter all point to one thing: 2010 is shaping up to be a great year for CruiseLineFans.