Harris Poll: Cruise Industry's Reputation Still Sinking

PHOTO: Norovirus outbreaks on several ships, including the Explorer of the Seas (pictured), has slowed the recovery of the cruise industry's reputation, according to a new poll. (Photo courtesy of Royal Caribbean International)

This one’s gotta hurt. Airlines have a better reputation than the cruise industry?

That’s one finding of a new Harris Poll that shows that attitudes toward cruising continued to decline following a run of norovirus outbreaks on ships in late January and February. The impression of cruising plummeted after the Carnival Triumph incident in February 2013, Harris said.

Following that incident, “perceptual measures suffered — not just for Carnival, but across seven leading cruise brands — and continued to dip through May,” the polling company said. “A recovery appeared to be underway more recently, with perceptions trending upwards in January 2014. However, norovirus reports aboard several cruise line ships in February 2014 seem to have effectively stolen the wind from the industry’s collective sails, with consumer perceptions of these top brands now dropping again.”

The Harris Poll surveyed 2,059 U.S. adults online between Feb. 10 and Feb. 14 and compared results to Harris Poll EquiTrend data collected Jan. 3-24. Most tellingly: 59 percent of respondents said that air travel is much more reliable than taking cruises and a 54 percent agreed that air travel is much safer than taking cruises.

Also, 54 percent of respondents said they’re less likely to take a cruise now than they were a year ago, with this sentiment proving stronger among those who have never taken a cruise (58 percent) than among those who have (44 percent).

Overall, the poll found that scores for Quality, Trust and Purchase Intent “were all still down significantly before the recent norovirus incidents, when compared to the state of these brands prior to the Triumph debacle. With all three measures dropping further still in the wake of the reported outbreaks, this leaves the average perceived Quality score down by 11 percent vs. its pre-Triumph level, with Trust down by 12 percent and Purchase Intent down by 13 percent.”

As with the Triumph incident, the impact of the norovirus outbreaks were not been limited to the cruise brands involved but impacted the seven brands included in the survey — Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean International.

“We’ve all heard the saying that a rising tide lifts all boats,” saids Deana Percassi, vice president and public relations research consultant with Nielsen. “But the inverse also holds true. In a field as crowded as the cruise industry, bad press for a small handful of brands — or even a single one — can have negative repercussions for major players across the board.”