More travelers are booking cruise vacations and paying more for the getaways, a welcome sign for an industry that’s struggled to keep its cabins full, executives at Carnival Corp. said Tuesday. Carnival cruise ships berth at the Port of Long Beach.
In the past nine weeks, reservations for the next nine months climbed 8 percent at the company that owns the Carnival, Princess and Holland America cruise lines. But the prices passengers were paying for their cruise vacations climbed 17 percent. That’s still below where it was before carriers started slashing prices to tempt travelers to come aboard. But it’s a welcome sign of recovery for the industry that’s seen its per-passenger profit plunge.