Cruises are booming and Royal Caribbean is the biggest winner

• The largest cruising companies had a 2024 banner in the middle of demand and booming prices.
• The largest – Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival – saw the income and growth of passengers compared to 2023
• Royal Caribbean has seen the most growth of all, welcoming some 8.6 million guests on board.

Each cruise line benefited from a request for the boom in sea, but a company is standing – or floating – above the rest of its competitors: Royal Caribbean Group.

Royal Caribbean is not the largest of the three best known cruise operators. Il and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings each supervise three brands, compared to the eight of Carnival Corp. As such, in 2025, carnival should represent 36% of the cruise industry income, followed by Royal Caribbean at 24.8% and Norwegian at 14.1%, according to Cruise Market Watch.

However, with regard to the growth from 2023 to 2024 in the revenues and passengers welcomed, Royal Caribbean is the clear winner.

The two competitors of the cruise giant recorded record income in 2024: 25 billion dollars for carnival (an increase of 15.9% compared to 2023) and $ 9.5 billion for the Norwegian (an increase of 10.9%). Likewise, the two welcomed around 8% more passengers than the previous year: 13.5 million for carnival and 2.9 million for the Norwegian.

These growth thrusts from one year to the next are impressive. But they pale compared to the figures of Royal Caribbean in 2024: an increase in revenues of 18.6% to 16.5 billion dollars and a 12% increase in passengers to a record of 8.6 million.

This is a sign that the company is increasingly capturing the cruising market impatient to spend – which should continue in 2025.

Royal Caribbean began the year with solid reservations and prices, with plans to start two new ships and a private station to further attract potential travelers.

Regarding demand, “there is no field of weakness,” said Jason Liberty, CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, analysts, a week before having known his biggest week in the “wave season” at the end of January.

Liberty said her private tendency island and two most recent and larger cruise ships, the Utopia of the Seas and the Sea icon, attracted beginners and regulars. Likewise, its cruises in the Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand have aroused a lot of demand.

Like Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian have experienced a boom in reservations and prices for 2025 – despite drier dock days than in 2024, which could have a negative impact on the number of passengers they welcome. However, the three companies plan to start more products this year, including new ships (including one of the largest in the world of Royal Caribbean) and stations.

That is to say, expect the entire cruise industry on the mass market to sail in another record year.