Will cruise industry continue to see megaships?
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent cruise history suggested Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas, slated to debut in 2022 as the company’s newest Oasisclass ship, would eventually be eclipsed as the largest cruise ship in the world.
Yet as with every other facet of travel, the coronavirus pandemic has significantly altered cruise operations now and likely into the future. Cruise lines are already shedding some ships and delaying new ship orders.
Cruise lines debuted the first 70,000-ton ships in the late 1980s and began billing ships as the “largest-ever” in the 1990s. At the time, the cruise lines’ idea was to create increased space to expand shipboard amenities, facilities and services, enabling cruise vacations to better compete with landbased resorts.
But operators found consumers responded to such designations, with many happy to report to friends and relatives they had sailed aboard the “largest-ever” cruise ship.
Yet just as COVID-19 has suddenly forced significant changes in the nature of cruise operations, the pandemic may also provide an avenue for the eventual debut of larger ships.
“If you had asked me this question a year ago I would say we had reached a limit,” said Dr. Robert Kwortnik, associate professor of services marketing at Cornell
University’s SC Johnson School of Business.
“But I have a different view of it now. For one, some of these ports and destinations have realized just how important cruise is,” said Kwortnik. “This is an example of what happens when the industry stops. It’s not a theory anymore. Some destinations may now be saying, ‘We know now we don’t need cruise.’ ”
He added, “I thought that was really interesting because now you look at an
Oasis-class ship and say ‘We could run that at 50% occupancy and operate at a profit. Plus, it’s so much bigger that (operators) can
social distance aboard this ship better than aboard a much smaller ship. These ships at least permit social distancing.”