Traditional British line, Cruise & Maritime Voyages revealed bookings for the European 2021 season are up by 55 per cent.

The findings, which were surveyed over February and March, show that there is still a strong interest in cruising, despite the current hold on the travel and cruise industry.

Cruisers are looking at longer cruises, according to CMV and that people are still planning future voyages.

And some of the most popular voyages include cruises to the Northern Lights. CMV has said that nearly half of all bookings were made for sailings in this region. And Arctic voyages to Iceland, Greenland and Scandinavia are also extremely popular.

The line also has announced that it has expanded its flexible booking policy for all new bookings made from now until the end of May.

“We know that keen cruisers still want to cruise, so we want to ensure that travellers can return to travel when they are ready and that they can have something to look forward to when this is all over,” says Dean Brazier, Managing Director of CMV Australia.

“To help restore confidence in cruising and reassure our guests about their future travel plans, we will be relaxing our booking conditions to allow guests to consider their future travel now and get motivated. By allowing changes to bookings for 2020, 2021 and 2022 cruises at no additional cost, we are ensuring that cruisers can book now and transfer later if, for any reason, they decide they aren’t ready to cruise again just yet.”

The updated policy offers guests more peace of mind when making new bookings in the short-term, with fully-transferrable deposits for new bookings made from now until the end of May, applicable on any sailing or any ship departing in 2020, 2021 or 2022, up until 90 days prior to sailing. All standard administration and transfer fees will be waived under CMV’s booking policy, to give cruisers confidence in future travel.

“Travel agents are key to the cruising industry and contribute greatly to the Australian economy,” says Darren Chigwidden, National Sales Manager for CMV Australia and New Zealand.

“This flexible policy not only gives guests peace of mind when booking future cruises with CMV, but it also supports agents in their roles at a time when they need it most. By securing future bookings with this policy, we can ensure that agents maintain their commissions and their confidence in cruises.”