Cruise line website traffic spiking this wave season: Similarweb

The digital intelligence platform found Holland America Line achieving the biggest boost, David Carr, senior insights manager, Similarweb, told Seatrade Cruise News. Royal Caribbean also had particular growth.

Holland America Line's worldwide traffic was up 49% year-over-year. As earlier reported, HAL has stacked up a recent series of booking records.

At Royal Caribbean International, which made a big splash with the January introduction of Icon of the Seas. worldwide January traffic was up 22% year-over-year, Carr said. Celebrity Cruises didn't have a particularly big January, but over the past 12 months its traffic rose 31.7% compared with the year before.

Princess Cruises stands out on engagement

HAL aside, Carr found Carnival Corp. & plc brands' overall web traffic down 4%, although visitations to Princess.com were up 15%. Princess Cruises was a winner by another measure of engagement, the amount of time visitors spent on its site — over 10 minutes per visit, compared with eight minutes for Royal Caribbean and less than that for the others on Similarweb's list.

NCL, Virgin, MSC

By traffic, Norwegian Cruise Line was up 16.7% in January and Virgin Voyages was up 15%, according to Carr. MSC Cruises continues to gain attention in the US market, with traffic up 33% year-over-year in January and 89% over the last year.