FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CruiseCompete Publishes March 2011 CruiseTrends™ Report

Insight into Consumer Behavior for Cruise Vacations, from Most Popular Countries and Ports to Most Popular Cruise Lines

DETROIT (April 1, 2011) -- CruiseCompete has mined its wealth of cruise data to report the latest trends in consumer behavior and purchase decisions for cruise vacations. This valuable information and statistics are available in its CruiseTrends ™ report.

CruiseTrends™ reports are compiled based on actual consumer quote requests on CruiseCompete, the highly acclaimed website where travel agents compete to offer the best deal for consumer cruise business.

The following comprises a sampling of trends for March 2011. To see more topics and data, please visit CruiseCompete’s Press Room or click on March 2011 CruiseTrends ™.

For purposes of the CruiseTrends ™ report, cruise lines recognized as premium or contemporary are grouped together as premium/contemporary.

Most Popular Cruise Lines
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each particular line in the given month)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Carnival Cruise Line
2. Luxury: Oceania Cruises
3. River Cruises: Viking River Cruises (over AmaWaterways last month)

In second place are Royal Caribbean International for premium/contemporary, Cunard Line for luxury and Avalon Waterways for river cruises. More …

Most Popular Cruise Ships
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each ship)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Allure of the Seas
2. Luxury: Queen Mary 2
3. River: MS AmaDolce

Next in popularity are Caribbean Princess for premium/contemporary, Oceania Marina for luxury, and the Viking Emerald for river. More …

Most Popular Cruise Regions
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each region)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Caribbean
2. Luxury: Mediterranean (over Europe last month)
3. River: Europe

Next in popularity are North America for premium/contemporary, Europe for luxury, and Asia/Far East for river cruises. More …


Most Popular Cruise Departure Ports
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each departure port)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Fort Lauderdale
2. Luxury: Civitavecchia (Rome)
3. River: Amsterdam

Next in popularity are Miami for premium/contemporary, Southampton for luxury, and Budapest for river cruises.
More …

Most Popular Cruise Ports Visited
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each port visited during cruise itineraries, excluding departure ports)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Nassau
2. Luxury: Kusadasi (Turkey)
3. River: Vienna

Next in popularity are Cozumel for premium/contemporary, Santorini (Greece) for luxury, and Regensburg (Germany) for river cruises.
More …

Most Popular Countries Visited
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each country visited during cruise itineraries, excluding countries of departure)

1. Premium/Contemporary: Bahamas
2. Luxury: Greece
3. River: Germany

Second are Mexico for premium/contemporary, Italy for luxury, and Austria for river cruises.
More …

Most Popular Cabin Types
(Ranked by the total number of quote requests for each cabin type)

4. Premium/Contemporary: Inside Cabin
5. Luxury: Balcony Cabin
6. River: Outside Cabin
More …

Hottest Months for Cruising
(Ranked by the most requested months)

1. Premium/Contemporary: April
2. Luxury: June (changed from July in February)
3. River: October (changed from July in February)
More …

Other interesting data available at the March 2011 CruiseTrends ™ report.
• Number of cabins requested
• Most popular cruise itinerary lengths
• Travel insurance requested
• Cruise line past passenger status requested
• Booking window of time

This cruise trend information is available monthly from CruiseCompete and can be insightful, especially for travel writers. To see a full year of cruise trend data, please click here:
Cruise Trends

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About CruiseCompete:
CruiseCompete was named by The Wall Street Journal as The Best in Travel and has been a repeat on Kiplinger's Best Travel Site list for many years. The Street says "Score Luxury Cruises at Bargain Prices."

Since 2003, over 1,700 cruise experts have provided close to 8 million quotes in response to 2 million quote requests.
For more information, please visit CruiseCompete.com or Cruise Compete Groups .
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Heidi M. Allison
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