The Caribbean may be the cruise market coming back in the strongest and quickest manner, backed up by the North American source market wanting to stay close to home, according to data presented in the 2021 Cruise Industry News Annual Report.

The Caribbean commanded an average of 38.9 percent of the global deployment of the cruise industry prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that number is expected to grow in the future as the industry returns to sailing.

Cruise guests from North America will want to stay closer to home, with homeports in Florida, Texas and Louisiana driving the majority of deployment to the Caribbean on big ships.

Data also shows that in years other markets saw pullbacks, the Caribbean saw its market share increase each time. Examples include the nosedive in the Chinese market in 2018 and 2019 due to overcapacity and a pricing war, as well as geopolitical issues in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea prior to that.

The last so-called normal year of operations, 2019, saw Carnival Cruise Line as the dominant Caribbean brand, holding 34 percent of the market, according to the 2021 Cruise Industry News Annual Report, followed by Royal Caribbean at 26.7 percent and Norwegian Cruise Line at 10.3 percent.