75% of easyCruise passengers are aged 18-40, with an average age of all passengers now at 35

posted: 28.04.05

easyCruise sets sail on Friday 6 May along the French and Italian rivieras. The inaugural week-end is now full but availability remains for cabins during the summer cruising season in the playground of the rich and famous.

easyCruise set out to attract independently minded people in their 20's, 30's and 40's and passenger bookings are showing that this has worked. Of those people who have booked so far, 75% are aged between 18 and 40, showing a radical departure from the typical cruise passenger attracted by other cruise lines, who are generally of retirement age. In an attempt to rejuvenate themselves some conventional cruise lines are claiming to have an average passenger age in the mid-fifties but these figure are skewed by the presence of children on board. In other words, for every child on board there is someone in their eighties in order to arrive at an "average" of mid-fifties.

The average age of all the passengers who have booked easyCruise so far now stands at 35 years old.easyCruise has, in the true style of the 'easy' brand, used innovation to attract genuinely young people on board. The ship, easyCruiseOne, stays in port every night until 4am, allowing passengers a full opportunity to enjoy the nightlife on shore. Once the vessel sets sail it arrives by lunchtime in a new and exciting port where it stays again until the early hours. This cycle is repeated daily on a seven day itinerary.

Further innovation by easyCruise means that passengers join and leave the cruise where and when they wish, subject to a 2 night minimum, 14 night maximum stay.

"Conventional cruise lines will always, despite their efforts to the contrary, attract retired people," said Stelios the serial entrepreneur and founder of both easyCruise and the easyGroup. "So long as they insist on cloistering their passengers on board every night, milking them in the casino, forcing them to play quoits and shuffleboard to while away the hours, they will never attract a young crowd."

easyCruiseOne is 88 metres long and takes 170 passengers and 54 crew. There are 86 cabins on board (twins, quads and suites) as well as a coffee bar, a sports bar with evening DJ, an outdoor cocktail bar with hot tub and a gym.