2024 has been a really interesting year for cruise retail with a lot of innovation, debuts and continued success. From the launch of Icon of the Seas at the start of the year through to the debut of Aroya at the end of the year, we have seen a continued upward trajectory across the year. Despite challenges that could have potentially affected a great amount of the success, the resilience and adaptability of the cruise industry continues to show no sign of slowing.
So, what can we expect in 2025? In this blog, I will try to give my best prediction as to what I think will happen in our industry for the year ahead:
1) All Eyes on Asia
2024 was a relatively quiet year for the Asian cruise retail market with most focus on the relative challenges of the Chinese cruise market. Well, 2025 looks to be much more exciting. We have the launch of 2 new ships in Singapore - Star Scorpio for Resorts World Cruises at the start of the year, and then the highly anticipated launch of Disney Adventure for Disney Cruise Line at the end of the year marking their debut in the Asian cruise market. Expansion in Japan also speeds ahead, we have just had the launch of the Mitsui Ocean Fuji. Later in the year 2025 the brand new Asuka III will launch also, the first new build specifically designed for the Japanese cruise market. These new cruise ship launches also mean that the market diversification with the potential for many categories to flourish increases substantially. And there is also the possibility of expansion in India.. watch this space!
2025 will be a really good time to get focusing on the ever increasing opportunity of Asia cruise retail!
2) Megaship Momentum
The main cruise lines in our industry will continue to grow strongly next year. The new megaships launching in 2025 will be more exciting, innovative and expertly designed than ever before. We have Star of the Seas, MSC World America, Norwegian Aqua and Star Princess to name but a few! The USA cruise market continues to be the overwhelming destination for all the new megaship launches and as such, there is plenty of organic growth coming into this industry-leading canvas. What does this mean for cruise retail? These ships will debut larger, stronger and more defined cruise retail offerings, meaning that the growth potential in USA cruising for brands will be better than ever, thanks to a strong supply of new ships amongst the market leaders. There will also be really good opportunity for each of the main cruise retail operators with many of the new ships divided amongst them.
3) New Opportunities
We have seen that a number of very interesting tender contracts have been awarded amongst the cruise retail operator community in 2024. The contract diversity in 2025 will only continue to develop with many new and exciting opportunities coming into our industry for a larger number of different cruise retail operators. We also saw an interesting diversification of focus with operators stepping out of their traditional sectors. All I will say is that our Who's Who guide to Cruise Retail Operators will never be more relevant than what lies ahead for us in 2025!
4) Innovation will Succeed
In 2024 there were some real attempts to innovate in cruise retail. We saw amazing new retailing open on a number of ships such as Queen Anne, Aroya and Sun Princess. We saw some great new ways of selling onboard such as the highly successful Effy charter event on Holland America Line back in the summer, and we saw some interesting new product launches coming onboard many ships with new brands such a DPT Antwerp and CDL showing their growth potential. But we need so much more of this! Copy and paste in cruise retail is not going to propel us forward into the next era of cruising. And in 2025, my my hope (a little more than my prediction) is that bolder will be better. The cruise retail industry really needs new ideas, new product categories, new events, new service innovations to really succeed. We are able to showcase such a unique style of retailing and we need to harness that opportunity to develop it even further forward, rather than simply re-do the same old way of thinking.
5) It's still about the People
Cruise retail has never been about anything other than the people who make the magic happen - the onboard teams! In 2025, our prediction and more importantly our focus as a cruise retail champion is that we put the onboard teams at the heart of all strategies. Focusing on strong recruitment, training, support, motivation and opportunity will bring the best of our industry's strengths to our guests. Cruise Retail Academy is here to support all elements of the onboard people experience from training to recruitment. We really believe passionately that in 2025 the best possible prediction is that we put the people first in order to drive the success. We will do this by substantially growing our resources available in 2025 to onboard professionals, operators and brands and by staying laser focused on the right ingredients for success right across the year.
We would like to wish all cruise retail teams a Happy New Year, and we hope you will see great growth and success in 2025!
Hello Adrian pittaway. 2025 will be a promising year for cruise retail. As you continue elevating us keep up brother. Let's meet in the new year and happy 2025 to all the entire cruise retail academy community.