The pandemic has led to a shift in the priorities of travellers as holidaymakers increasingly demand more personal space as they try to make up for lost time. While the pandemic posed serious challenges for much of the travel industry, some sectors have thrived – none more so than luxury, ultra-luxury and expedition cruising according to analysis by luxury cruise retailer Panache Cruises.

The luxury cruise sector has grown by 119 percent from an annual passenger capacity of approximately 324,512 in 2012 to 721,078 passengers in 2022.

With more new small ships under construction or on order, the luxury cruise sector is projected to continue to grow to reach nearly 1.2 million passengers by 2027. (This is as far as the current orderbook goes).

The market for expedition cruises, a smaller segment of the luxury cruise market, has seen the largest growth of all segments over the past 10 years, expanding by 450 percent from approximately 67,000 passengers in 2012 to 367,557 in 2022.

The market for expedition cruising that sees passengers travel closer to the heart of the most remote parts of the world is projected to grow to more than 430,000 passengers annually by 2027. And many more new luxury cruise ships are in the planning stages.

The experts at Panache Cruises predict that the number of small ships will double by 2030 to meet this increasing demand to travel further and for longer in more luxurious surroundings.

While the mass-market cruise ships carry up to 7,000 passengers and weigh in at over 225,000 tonnes, most luxury ocean-going cruise ships carry well under 1,000 passengers. Despite the ships being used for luxury and expedition cruising being much smaller, passengers can expect to have more than double the space than on mass-market cruise ships.

Smaller ships can take travellers to places that the larger cruise ships cannot go as passengers seek out bucket list experiences in an uncrowded environment.

This rapid growth in luxury and ultra-luxury cruising comes at a time when household budgets are tight, reflecting a shift in what holidaymakers see as being important to them post-pandemic. James Cole, Founder and Managing Director at luxury cruise-focused Panache Cruises said: “Following the pandemic, we have seen a shift in the priorities of travellers across the wider travel sector as people become more crowd conscious and move away from mass-market style holidays.

“When translated into the cruise sector, this is driving more interest in small ship cruising due to smaller passenger numbers and the fact that small ships often offer 50% more personal space per person compared to the largest cruise ships.

“We will also see a much higher number of expedition-focused vessels coming down slipways in the next few years as more people demand bucket list experiences post-pandemic. “We are seeing that people are trying to make up for lost time and are prepared to spend more to reach the destinations they really want to visit.

“All those cancelled holidays during the pandemic have given a lot of people more buying power in the post-pandemic world and we are seeing more and more people switching to higher cabin grades and longer itineraries as a result. “Travel has become an essential staple of modern life and an opportunity to make lasting memories on ‘once in a lifetime’ type itineraries – if anything travel has become more important in the post-pandemic world.”