Despite coronavirus, people are still booking a record number of cruises

Even though multiple cruise ships from all over the world have coronavirus nightmares, with some even being turned away from docks while passengers beg for medical assistance, people are remarkably still booking cruises for next year.

In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports that more people have been booking cruises for 2021 than previous years.

Swiss bank USB found that 9% more cruises are being booked for 2021 than the same time last year. The USB report, which was issued March 31, included people using their credits for canceled cruises, but the increase in booking “still shows a surprising resilience in desire to book a cruise.”

More people have been booking cruises for 2021 than previous years.

Meanwhile, the president of cruisecompete.com, Heidi M. Allison, told the newspaper that the online cruise market has had a 40% increase in bookings between 2019 and 2021. That increase is just from the past 45 days.

“We are optimistic that once this crisis is behind us, travel will rebound quickly, which bodes well for 2021,” said AAA senior vice president, Paula Twidale. She added that AAA is also seeing an increase in bookings.

What’s more is that 75% of former passengers said they would continue sailing the same amount or more frequently after responding to an online poll of more than 4,600 people on CruiseCritic.com.

This story originally appeared in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
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This article appears in Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.