The cruise industry is booming thanks to younger consumers looking to “seacation”
Operators are still managing to lure Gen Z and millennials with shorter, cheaper, and more action-packed trips.
The cruise industry’s old cliche that “the newly wed, the overfed, and the nearly dead” fuel the business could do with a little update in 2025. As Sherwood News noted earlier this year, a growing number of Gen Zers and millennials captivated by the idea of “seacationing” are powering cruise lines through the gloom that’s dawned in parts of the broader travel industry this year, as passenger volumes are forecast to hit to ~38 million, up 27% from the prepandemic level in 2019.
When cruise travel reached a record high last year, 36% of global cruise travelers were under the age of 40, per research from the Cruise Lines International Association.
Furthermore, 76% of Gen Zers and a whopping 83% of millennials who have gone on a trip in the last two years say they would plan to cruise again, as North America’s largest cruise operators work hard to appeal to younger travelers, betting on shorter three- to four-day trips, private island destinations, and curated experiences at every turn.
The new cruise-going demographic is happily adding to these businesses’ top lines — some 30% of Royal Caribbean’s 2.3 million guests in Q2 were millennial-age or younger, per the company’s earnings call, and its research shows that more than half of those passengers are “now more likely to consider cruising.” In the last three years, Royal Caribbean shares have surged more than 340%.
Rival Norwegian Cruise Lines is enjoying the same uptick, with CEO Harry Sommer commenting on CNBC that “we appeal obviously to older customers, but millennial and Gen Z is the fastest-growing segment of our cruising right now.” By focusing on younger guests and providing them with experiences that keep them coming back, companies are now actively working to “cultivate the next generation of cruisers,” in the words of Royal Caribbean CFO Naftali Holtz, to prop up a business that relies on customer loyalty.
Often highly sensitive to consumer spending, the cruise industry has had a decent year, with the three largest North American cruise operators — Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and Norwegian — all raising their full-year earnings guidance throughout 2025, sustained even amid price increases.
