Greedy cruise lines – increase prices

Cruise travel advice: Greedy Cruise lines want to increase the cost of cruising over the next couple of years so cruise lines can recover some of their investment..

Royal Caribbean Cruises vice-president and managing director UK and Ireland Robin Shaw has said.

Cruise lines want to increase prices by more over 15%, do not let them get away with it, demand cheaper prices..

Cruise lines will buckle, already one cruise agency has gone bust this year..

P&O Cruises managing director Carol Marlow said Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) figures for 2008 showed cruise passengers spent an average £135 a day, while the average price of a cruise was £1,404 per person. The average cruise was 10.4 days.

Shaw told the Cruise Forum at the Abta Travel Convention in Barcelona on Thursday there have been “double-digit” discounts by the cruise lines this year to help the industry get through the recession.

Marlow said the financial crisis had made value for money more important for consumers, who rated it as the fifth reason why people like to cruise in a YouGov survey commissioned last year by the cruise line to try to understand how to develop the market.

She said value for money had appeared further down the list in previous surveys. The quality of food and service were at numbers one and two respectively