Cruising past moribund for new travel markets

CRUISE ship operators want to expand their market beyond those who traditionally go cruising.

These are, according to a recent article in The Economist, the newlyweds, the overfeds and the nearly-deads — a shrinking market, or, at best, one that is not growing fast enough.

Those just wedded may have the time and money to try another cruise, so they can be considered as returning customers.

Overfed customers are likely to be downgraded to nearly-deads unless they change their eating habits and thereby extend their cruise-worthiness; many of the nearly-deads will soon be among the previously alive and are therefore no longer able to buy cruise holidays.

So new customers must be lured from somewhere, and the cruise industry is looking beyond marriage bureaus, gyms for slimmers and the pre-burial business for new passengers who haven’t done it all before.