American cruise passengers are taking voyages in Europe and Asia in rising numbers, according to the latest Cruise Trends 2015 report from Cruise Holidays Int’l.
The annual report ignores forecasts and predictions, looking instead at real cruise bookings made by US and Canadian agents for departure in the year ahead.
Both ocean and river cruises are seeing greater demand from US pax, with Passau in Germany and Lyon in France highlighted as the two fastest growing destinations.
Accessibility of the Caribbean to the US market kept the region firmly in the lead for ocean cruise operations, aided by more departure ports in states along the Gulf of Mexico and the east coast.
The Mediterranean, Baltic, Scandinavia and Greek Isles came in second, with Alaska in third.
Americans are shunning the South Pacific as a long-haul cruise destination, the report found, with the region continuing a two year fall from eighth to tenth and factoring for only 1.7% of 2015 bookings for US passengers.
Sailings of seven and fourteen days to and from Amsterdam along the Danube, Rhine & Main Rivers remains the most popular, with 41.2% of coming bookings.
Cruises taking in Budapest, Basel, Paris, Prague and Avignon also feature in the top ten.
Asian destinations dominated the river cruise segment outside of Europe, with China, Vietnam and Myanmar identified as key drivers of growth for US cruisers.
“We see strong growth there both for deep water and river cruising. They have emerged as complementary – not competing – forces in travel,” Vacation.com SVP sales Kevin Weisner said.