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Human beings are social that they are, living in a society has its downsides like work, competition, school, college, relationships, expectations, and all of these stressful emotions tend to bottle up inside us and we soon start searching for ways to let go of it. That is precisely why we love vacations and holidays. Such occasions where we forget all of our worries and indulge in eventful enthusiasm are the reason why we love to vacation. The travel industry has been built on this exact principle and that is why it has been so successful. People travel to all sorts of destinations around the world to go for vacation. But..what if you could commercialize the traveling part of the vacation?
The Cruise Industry:
The Cruise industry does exactly that, commercializing the act of travel with the use of large ships holding thousands of passengers and giving them a holiday-like unforgettable experience. The entire theme of cruise ships is to entertain you throughout the trip. Jam-packed with all sorts of entertaining attractions while treating you to world-class food prepared by onboard chefs, ultimately culminating into a memorable experience worth remembering.
Now doesn't it seem obvious how these big cruise companies make their buck? How do they work? Most cruise liners fall under 3 unique categories; Mainstream, Casual, Luxury. All three of these categories have their ways of making their profit.
It starts with the Mainstream Ships - these cruise liners rely on the profit in terms of a larger scale, meaning the tickets are sold at a cheaper price and often not enough for the company to make back its money purely on the ticket sales, so they rely on the passengers to spend extra on restaurants, casinos, onboard entertainment, shops, etc.
Then we come to the premium ships, these cruises are a bit more upfront in making their profits via the ticket sales but also find other ways of earning their profits by setting up local activities like surfing for high prices on reaching certain hotspots for docking.
Finally, the Luxury ships are pretty self-explanatory and make most of their profit with expensive ticket sales.
Turnover Day: A Coordinated marvel The end of every cruise’s journey is called the turnover day. This day is where the magic happens. It is where the ship is docked at bay and starts preparing for its next set of passengers. It starts with the ship docked at night and all concurrent passengers exiting out of their rooms and out with all their luggage. While this is happening, the entire ship is turned around with over a thousand crew members coordinated towards all the individual hotels, suites, theaters, restaurants, theme parks, which are cleaned and dusted as if nothing ever happened, all happening overnight and in the morning all the luggage of 6000 passengers loaded in with over a 100 thousand pounds of food alongside. Everything is sorted and sent to their respective storage rooms awaiting their use and by 5 pm everything is ready to set sail. All of this is done without any of the passengers realizing that it ever happened.
Constant travel:
Almost every major Cruise liner follows the line of “if they aren’t traveling, they ain’t making money” this is because maintaining such a large ship in pristine condition is extremely expensive and thus needs to be making money throughout its lifespan, which is why you never see a cruise ship not docked for more than a day. Most cruise ships switch around the world between seasons so that they keep making money all year round.
The virus bringing down the industry to its knees:
With Corona surprising everyone, the thought of an entire industry making billions each year shutting down in an instant was something unprecedented. It was a challenge for these big cruise liners to suddenly be tasked to survive for months with no revenue, no passengers, and with least help from the government to aid them. It becomes a ticking time bomb to find a solution to the thousands of crew members still on board awaiting their time to board. Under these circumstances, all the crew members needed to be fired and sent back home to their regions safely to avoid any more loss than what they had endured up till now. By doing so they could avoid the commissioning costs of the employees while employing enough to maintain the basic functions of the ships.
Nowadays we can see the ships slowly drifting across various coastlines waiting and circling the same pathways, patiently waiting for when they can start earning back their revenue once they are allowed to do so.
Is the industry dead?
No, far from it. As long as there is a demand for it, Companies will always find a way to get back into the business. The cruise ship industry is home to many professionals who make their living from what they love to do. This is an industry that makes billions each year and it will not take long before it reclaims its glorious days. As people will never grow tired of taking a break from their busy work lives, The Cruise industry will survive the pandemic and sustain itself. --- Sai Charan