Leadership from every major cruise line just wrapped the 41st annual Seatrade Global Cruise Conference in Miami, and CLIA released its annual State of the Cruise Industry Report. The signal coming out of both is loud enough that even if cruise is not your primary lane as a travel advisor, it deserves a few minutes of your attention.
37.2 Million People Can't All Be Wrong
That is how many passengers cruised in 2025, a new record. Keep reading, because the rest of the numbers are just as striking:
22.1 million of those passengers came from North America, up 7.5% over 2024.
90% of past cruisers say they intend to cruise again.
75% of non-cruisers say they are open to taking a cruise (that is the number that should stop you in your tracks).
The cruise industry is not having a moment, it is having a decade, and analysts are projecting an amazing 20% growth through the mid-2030s.
I am raising this because I know how many advisors think about cruise: as someone else's business. You might be a destination specialist, or a luxury advisor, or a honeymoon planner, and cruise just does not feel like your lane. I get it, I do. I am not here to tell you to pivot your entire practice, but I will ask you to sit with one question for a minute:
How much revenue are you, the advisor, leaving on the table by not leaning in?
The Product Has Changed
If your mental model of cruise is still buffet lines and shuffleboard, it is time for an update.
Seatrade surfaced an entirely new class of vessel from Princess Cruises and a massive fleet refurbishment program from Holland America Line, just two headlines out of a week that was full of them. The major lines have spent billions repositioning:
Inclusive pricing that bundles airfare, accommodations, dining, entertainment, and excursions into one number.
Loyalty programs that create ready repeat buyers.
Small-ship and expedition product that competes head-to-head with boutique land travel.
Group rates that let you build hosted departures with margins your land packages cannot touch.
Frankly, the product has become hard to argue against for a huge slice of the traveling public. And the infrastructure the cruise lines have built around advisor partnerships makes this one of the most accessible categories to grow into.
The Math Exercise
With this being the case, here is what I would encourage advisors to do this week.
Pull up your client list. Identify five people who booked a beach resort, an all-inclusive, or a Caribbean destination in the past twelve months. Just five.
Now ask yourself honestly: would a cruise have served any of them as well, or better?
In most cases, the answer is yes. And the per-client commission on a cruise booking often runs higher than the equivalent land package, sometimes much higher.
And here is the data point that should not be missed: 63% of people who cruised in the last twelve months booked through a travel advisor. Cruise clients, STILL after all of this time with direct booking and OTA options, by and large are not looking to DIY. They are looking for a guide: you, the advisor.
You do not have to become a devoted cruise-only specialist to capture this. You just have to stop actively filtering it out (yes, I’m talking to you 😊).
An Easy Move
Spend an hour on a cruise line advisor portal learning about their basic offerings and latest promotions. Connect with the BDM if you haven’t already. Then reach out to those five clients with a specific sailing that matches what they already told you they like. That is it, no grand reinvention required.
Why Now
The tailwind is real, and it is not just me saying it. According to CLIA, half of the advisors polled expect their cruise sales volume to be up 6% or more year-over-year. Sixty-two percent expect some level of positive increase. Your peers are already leaning in.
And it is not just about passenger counts. Cruise clients tend to be repeat buyers. That means every first-time cruise client you convert carries a higher lifetime value than most one-off resort bookings. They also tend to refer. The social dynamics of cruise travel like group dining, excursion companions, onboard communities create natural word-of-mouth that brings new clients to your door without a dollar of additional marketing spend.
The clients are already out there, spending this money. The only question is whether they are spending it through you.
Best Success,
Jason
P.S. Several of our WorldVia team will be at Cruise360 this week. If you are there, find them, they want to hear how you are thinking about cruise and where we can help. And if you have a cruise success story (or a question about getting started), drop me a line at jblock@worldvia.com. I read every one and hope to hear from you.