FORT LAUDERDALE -- As the world's largest cruise companies enjoy a streak of record-breaking performances, environmental concerns pose the biggest challenge to the industry, Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean Group's CEO and CLIA chairman, told attendees at CruiseWorld Thursday.
European policies are pressuring the industry to quickly clean up their emissions, but there is no obvious clean fuel source available and affordable at scale, Liberty said.
"There is endless investment I know we're doing, the industry is doing, to try to advance technology to lower our emissions," he said during his conversation with Travel Weekly editor in chief Arnie Weissmann. "But the reality of it is we need the fuel sources to be available to us as soon as possible."
Failing to work fast enough to lower its greenhouse gas emissions could force cruise lines to lose their right to operate in certain places, he said.
Royal Caribbean Group made beyond-expected progress this year toward its goal of achieving zero cruise emissions by 2050, which is a benchmark adopted by CLIA: The company reached its 2025 emissions target a year early, he said. The group also plans to retire older tonnage beginning in 2030, not only due to the vessels' emissions profiles but because by then they will be less relevant to customers -- and the brand -- even with modernization.
Opportunities for cruise brands to 'level up'
Liberty has long said that a major opportunity for cruising is the consumer trend towards prioritizing spending on experiences above the purchase of things. He echoed that Thursday, alluding to ways in which the company now considers and draws inspiration from experiences it considers to be competition.
For instance: Taylor Swift concerts, or trips to Las Vegas and Orlando.
"If you're a family of four, and you're choosing where you're going to spend your discretionary dollars, it could be that you decide that you're going to take your kids or your wife to the Taylor Swift concert. And that answer might be, that's where that money goes," he said.
It behooves Royal Caribbean Group to think about how its cruise brands can "level up" with experiences on par with or better than those on land, he said.
Despite that competition, the lines have attracted new customers. More than half of the company's guests had either never cruised before or are new to the brand, he said during the company's Q3 earnings call last month. More than half its guests are millennial or younger, he said Thursday.
Liberty said the perception about what a cruise is has now aligned with what the experience is like.
"We've fought for decades, everybody here probably in the room, trying to articulate what a modern a cruise experience is," he said. "And I think we've gotten there finally."