Are we booking further ahead because of the “B” Word

I’m not a great one for politics and certainley am not one for forcing my opinion on anyone else but it does seem at the moment that no matter where you turn you cant escape the topic of brexit and how it will affect everything from how we live day to day to what we will do for our holidays. I’ve been asked a lot less than you would expect if brexit is having an impact on people booking cruises and my answer has always been not really.

Well now as we are living through the most extraordinary of times at the moment politically I find myself now starting to wonder if it is having an affect on how we all are thinking of our next cruise. I have no official figures to back me up but if we take just the last two weeks for example I personally have had my first cancellation that mentioned brexit as part of the reason however I do have to say unless it is effecting from a business or work point of view I cant see how. The cruise had not changed in any way shape or form the cost and inclusions are all the same and we did look at alternatives so I really dont know if it was just an excuse or a genuine reason.

What has really got me starting to think is the booking pattern that I am having out of the last 20 bookings I have made only 3 have been for 2019, 16 have been for 2020 and 1 for 2021. So to put that into percantages 15% have booked 2019, 80% have booked 2020 and 5% have booked 2021 which seems very interesting to me ( Well as interesting as anyne quoting figures and percentages gets ) like a say it’s not official in any way and it could just be purely what I am booking and totally out of sync with the rest of my colleagues and the industry as a whole.

It could al just be down to people wanting to bag great deals by booking early as I’ve been booking a lot of P&O and Cunard past guests who have been taking advantage of some great fares and booking new ships like the Iona. I’ve also booked a few Cruise and Maritime as they have had some great Buy one get one free deals for 2020 too. What really has been selling well is our tailormade packages and trips to the Far East for early 2020 and then the best selling trip I and we have had has been a trip from Singapore to Brisbane on the Regal Princess in Novemeber of 2020 which believe it or not has now completely sold out which is scary to think how far in advance that is!

So like I say it could just be that my customers ahve all just seen great early deals and were smart by securing them especially the ones who did manage to book the Singapore to Brisbane before it sold out or are people not wanting to book 2019 until we see how the mess that is Brexit unfolds. You could argue that it should be the other way round with people booking to travel now and then not booking so far in advance.

Let me know how the “B” word is affecting your cruise plans and if my current booking trend mirrors you thoughts or not!