This summer was the first time 31-year-old Daisie Morrison had been on a cruise when she set sail on a two-week holiday with two friends, also in their early 30s. "One of my friends suggested it," she says. "She had seen different influencers on Instagram going on cruises. You go to so many places that we wanted to visit, so we were all quite keen."
The previous summer, Morrison says, she had been on a group holiday in Italy, which in contrast had involved "spending a lot of time, money and stress" getting around. With the cruise, "you just wake up in a new place every day".
Morrison is part of a generation of holidaymakers who are at the heart of the expansion of an industry once seen as the preserve of rich retired couples. The number of passengers taking ocean cruises has more than doubled from 13 million in 2004 to nearly 32 million - and that is despite the devastation to the industry in the pandemic.
The Cruise Lines International Association (Clia) expects this number to approach 40 million in 2027, and says the key to such growth will be attracting millions of new-to-cruise travellers. Millennials, it reports, are "the most enthusiastic cruise travellers of the future".
It is not surprising that the industry needs a new target market, when many cruise ships "can start to feel a bit like care homes at sea", says Xavier Font, a professor at the University of Surrey who has studied the industry. "So the cruise companies need an entirely new brand of ship. They are then turning these into either the party cruise ship, say, or the family cruise ship."
As the industry has expanded and ships have become much more numerous and visible, this has increased concerns about the environmental impact of this type of holiday. But Font believes this is having little impact on the popularity of cruises.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 30, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 30, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Jones back to run rule over England as ITV pundit
Eddie Jones will cast a critical eye over England's make-or-break Six Nations campaign with the former head coach signed as an ITV pundit for the forthcoming championship.
UK second most attractive country in investor survey
The UK is the second most attractive country for investment behind the US, signalling a climb up the rankings, according to an annual survey of global business leaders by the consultancy PwC.
Robot retailers Firms embrace automation to cut staffing costs
Electronic shelf labels, returns machines, robot bag packers and yet more self-service tills are just some of the many technologies that UK retailers are embracing as they try to solve the problem of rising labour costs.
Svitolina surges on but watches husband Monfils exit
In the aftermath of a comeback win that put her into the 12th grand slam quarter-final of her career, Elina Svitolina left Rod Laver Arena aware her most difficult task of the day was still to come.
Tielemans now Villa's pacemaker at heart of resurgence
Former Leicester midfielder has proved sceptics wrong with his displays central to the side's transformation
Rashford open to playing for United despite looming exit
Marcus Rashford is ready and available to play for Manchester United, the Guardian understands, after Ruben Amorim indicated the forward had ruled himself out of contention for the defeat by Brighton on Sunday.
Use of rehabilitation and tags could allow a women's prison to close, says minister
A women's jail in England or Wales should be closed by diverting offenders to other forms of punishment and rehabilitation, the prisons minister, James Timpson, has said.
Comedy review: It's strictly stand-up as music stops
\"Twenty-one years of hard graft on the comedy scene, to now be best known for dancing.\" The ironies of his newfound celebrity are not lost on Chris McCausland, not only the winner of last year's Strictly Come Dancing but a contestant so well-loved that he's been credited with redeeming the entire franchise.
Fashion The first lady or a mob wife at a funeral?
In the Capitol rotunda the incoming first lady was nowhere to be seen.
Alaska Resumes Its 'Inhumane' Shooting of Bears and Wolves
Alaska is to resume the aerial shooting of bears and wolves to boost caribou and moose numbers despite an official report casting doubt on the value of the practice.