Americans are cruising again — and at record-breaking levels.
Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean all reported entering the 12 months with record highs for individual bookings and cruise pricing.
It’s a powerful turnaround after the industry was largely halted for 15 months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order in March 2020 on the onset of the Covid pandemic within the U.S.
And Royal Caribbean has been leading the best way. It’s seen the best ticket revenue increase relative to 2019 out of the large three cruise giants. And last month, its share price surpassed its pre-pandemic high. Carnival and Norwegian each trade greater than 50% lower than their 2019 levels.
“The No. 1 reason why Royal Caribbean has outperformed its peers and recovered the fastest is because they issued the smallest amount of equity in the course of the pandemic. All of the businesses needed to issue equity. … All the businesses needed to issue convertible debt, and Royal Caribbean was in a position to manage its money position in a way that utilized the smallest amount of equity,” said Brandt Montour, Barclays senior equity research analyst.
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