As the cruise industry moves away from COVID restrictions that nearly crippled the industry, credit and debit card data released from Bank of America showed spending on cruise tickets has returned to pre-COVID levels. Core monthly cruise spending in January soared 21% compared to 2019. The spending growth in January increased 9% from December, 18.6% in November and 4.9% in October.
The “Wave season” numbers indicate a strong start, with the total monthly card spending in January being the second-highest month in the history of the collected data (2005 to present). Bank of America analyst Andrew Didora Didora says the increased spending aligns with the pricing strength in the bank’s latest cruise pricing survey.
