Cruising Is Back! Here's Why That Matters to Queer Travelers
At cruise travel’s peak in 2019, 30 million passengers hit the seas and rivers each year.Then the travel industry cratered in the face of the global pandemic and worldwide lockdowns.
Cruise ships became viewed as one of the most dangerous places to be. Some ships were not allowed into ports, forced instead to remain at sea for long periods of time.Earlier this year Cruise Lines International Association, the leading organization of the global cruise community, released its 2022 State of the Cruise Industry Outlook.
The annual report revealed that only 5.8 million people took a cruise in 2020, a loss of 81 percent from 2019. Forty-nine percent of cruise-supported employees lost their jobs.Travel has always been about more than vacationing for LGBTQ+ Americans.
It is an avenue for us to find community, to go places more accepting, to be our most authentic selves among others like ourselves.Kelli Carpenter recently reflected on founding the queer family cruise company R Family Vacations, saying it became more than a company, “It became a community.”Indeed, gender scholar Liz Montegary tells Out Traveler, “booking a cruise — could be experienced as [a] politicized [act].
