Royal Caribbean CEO gives read on consumers’ leisure habits

In a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Royal Caribbean CEO Jason Liberty said consumers still want to spend money on cruises, even as President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes threaten the health of the broader economy.

“One of the things that’s a great hedge for the consumer for the cruise industry, especially for Royal Caribbean, is we still trade at a 20, 25% discount to land-based vacation,” Liberty said. “So, they’re still getting a lot of value out of that vacation experience, and our recent surveys of our guests show that, actually, their propensity to cruise is at all-time highs, and their desire to go on vacation is 50% higher than it has been in the past.”

He claimed that the “hard costs” of tariffs on foreign imports aren’t a major challenge for the company because it mostly buys products from the U.S. He said Royal Caribbean is seeing consumers consistently continue to book trips and shop while on its ships. He also suggested that supply for ships themselves is “well-controlled,” when considering the number of ships made compared to the ones retired each year, saying the industry is “at best” going to grow 3.5% over the next five to ten years.

Royal Caribbean shares saw a boost after the cruise line posted a solid quarter recently. But it has since given back many of these gains, as the whole cruise sector declined late last month when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the White House would make these companies pay more taxes.

Liberty brushed off some of these concerns, saying that Royal Caribbean does pay a variety of taxes.

“There’s a lot of taxes, we pay port taxes and head taxes and, really, the different jurisdictions that we go into, and, of course, there’s a lot of stuff that we’re buying for our ships that we’re also paying tax,” he said. “We think it’s an opportunity just to educate, and I, typically when we educate exactly all that we do do, it typically resonates very well with, with different constituents.”

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