FORT LAUDERDALE -- With the pandemic in the rearview mirror, Carnival Corp. CEO Josh Weinstein told more than 800 travel advisors at the opening general session at Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld conference here Wednesday that the company has "gotten back our footing" and has "the wind at our backs."
What he would now like to see is an uptick in cruise pricing.
Weinstein discussed the value proposition between land and cruise vacations as a double-edged sword: He championed the value of cruising but lamented how wide the gap is with those land vacations.
"You enthusiastically promote the unmatched experiences guests will have while on a cruise, and you help educate them on the insane value that a cruise has to offer," he told the travel professionals here, stretching out the word "insane." When a member of the audience replied with a cheer, Weinstein countered, "I'm not happy about it. It should not be that much of a value. And we're working on that."
However, he also emphasized the power of the value gap to attract new cruisers and as a tool to counter a possible recession or economic downturn.
Cruise lines have been working to close that gap. The Big Three cruise companies, Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, have all reported higher pricing this year. In Carnival Corp.'s case, it has charged prices 5% to 7% higher than in 2019, Weinstein told advisors.
"I don't just travel on cruises. I go on other vacations, too," he said. "I want to tear my hair out at how disparate the pricing environment is from cruising to land- based alternatives."
Weinstein said land-based vacations are 25% to 50% more expensive than cruise vacations. Should land-based prices come down when a recession eventually hits, he said, cruising "will still be an incredible value."
If travel advisors take anything away from his message at CruiseWorld, Weinstein wants it to be the importance of the value proposition, especially given the downward economic trends in the U.S.
But he also said that despite widespread concerns about the economic health of consumers, spending has been strong with the company, which owns nine cruise lines, including Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Cunard.
"We see no signs of a slowdown in our consumer spending," he said, adding that the company is seeing "incredibly" robust demand and record bookings.
Weinstein's first year
One of the lessons Weinstein said he learned in his first year at the helm of Carnival Corp., after taking the position in August 2022, is the ability of the company to pivot in the face of adversity.
While he did not mention any specific challenge, cruise lines have had to adjust from the pandemic, the ongoing war in Ukraine and, most recently, the escalation of fighting in Israel.
"I think us, as an industry, we're very good at dealing with the surprises, in part because our assets are mobile and partly because we're used to the geopolitical macroeconomic waves that push everything around," Weinstein said.