Alaska Cruises have had their best year in seven years, and are thought to do even better in 2017. This is seen as a threat for Europe, which is also a popular cruise destination. After the 2015 refugee crisis in Greece a lot of people made the switch.
One Orlando based Cruise Planners franchisee Kathleen Peters noted the difference.
“There’s been a little shift for me from Europe to Alaska for a lot of my U.S. clients. A lot of them are well seasoned, so they wouldn’t even say that it was about that necessarily. But when it comes down to making the choice, it’s interesting that so many more of them are [traveling] domestically.”
In addition to the lower demand for Europe, some of the Alaska ships have increased their capacity, which of course means that there is room for more people. In September of this year the Alaska cruise line had its one millionth passenger, which is a number that they have not passed since 2009.
Alaska has also been making some changes to their ports which makes the visiting experience an increasingly better one. Interestingly Alaska has the capacity for a lot of growth, so they’re hoping to increase travel as much as possible.
