Leading Brands in the US Cruise Industry: Q1 2024 Analysis

As the cruise industry continues to navigate the shifting tides of digital engagement, Sensor Tower provides unparalleled insights into the performance of leading brands. In this article, we delve into the digital footprints of Carnival Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line, highlighting their Q4 2023 to Q1 2024 performance.

Carnival Cruise Line

Carnival Cruise Line, renowned for its fun and family-friendly cruises, has a substantial digital presence through carnival.com and the Carnival HUB app.

• Audience Trends: Carnival.com experienced significant growth, with visits rising from 23M in October to over 72M by March. The monthly deduplicated audience saw a peak in January at over 4.7M, stabilizing above 4M in subsequent months.

• App Engagement: The Carnival HUB app's monthly active users increased steadily, crossing 300K by March, indicating a growing preference for mobile engagement.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Carnival's monthly ad spend peaked in December at over $4M, with a notable focus on OTT and Facebook, delivering significant impressions.

Royal Caribbean

Royal Caribbean, known for innovative ships and unique itineraries, anchors its digital strategy with royalcaribbean.com and the Royal Caribbean International app.

• Audience Trends: The website visits surged to over 33M in January. The monthly deduplicated audience remained robust, consistently above 3.2M in Q1 2024.

• App Engagement: The app maintained strong engagement, with monthly active users hovering around 400K from February onwards.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Royal Caribbean’s monthly ad spend remained stable, with OTT and Facebook being prominent channels, achieving impressions over 260M in March.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line, celebrated for its freestyle cruising concept, enhances its digital ecosystem with ncl.com and the Cruise Norwegian - NCL app.

• Audience Trends: The website visits increased, reaching nearly 15M in March. The monthly deduplicated audience saw a remarkable rise, surpassing 2.3M by March.

• App Engagement: The app's monthly active users grew steadily, nearing 90K in Q1 2024.

• Ad Spend & Channels: Norwegian's monthly ad spend peaked in January at over $5.5M, with desktop display and OTT channels delivering the bulk of impressions.

Conclusion

This analysis underscores the dynamic digital strategies of leading cruise lines. Sensor Tower's comprehensive data, spanning web insights, app performance, and advertising analytics, offers critical insights into cross-platform user behavior. For more detailed insights, explore our Web Insights, App Performance Insights, and Pathmatics offerings.