The shipping industry is slowly returning to pre-COVID passenger capacity. Vessels are not yet carrying 100% of passengers, but all operators are confident that they will soon be able to sail at full passenger capacity.
Unfortunately, after COVID, the Russian-Ukrainian war caused a 30% increase in commodity prices and oil prices are now very high. The shipping industry is one of the biggest consumers of oil.
For the time being, all operators are keeping their prices low because they want to serve as many passengers as possible and a price increase would mean that the vast majority of passengers would cancel their trips. All passengers are trying to take advantage of the current low ticket prices and discounts, but analysts predict that this period will slowly pass. Soon, all companies will be forced to raise prices, not only because of rising raw material prices, but also because of rising labour costs. Not to mention that there is currently a labour shortage in the market. Companies laid off employees when COVID broke out and now they can't find suitable employees.
Victoria Cruises has a completely different pricing structure. As our passengers (residents) do not pay for a short trip but travel on a rental arrangement we can offer our passengers long term pricing. The monthly rates for the rental contracts signed this year are guaranteed until the end of the rental period in all cases, but our maximum price guarantee extends to the entire world bypass period. So if you have an unlimited rental period, we can offer you a 27-month price guarantee. Should our prices increase, we will inform our clients 6 months before the price change, so they have time to decide to extend their contract. We cannot ignore the evolution of prices on the world market, but our prices are set so that everyone can find the right price for them.
