Carnival manages well-known brands such as Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Cunard Lines, Holland America, Costa and Seabourn.

Dingle can afford to be optimistic. The latest YouGov study of cruising attitudes shows that brand awareness of Cunard Lines rose 15% among passengers who cruised during the past five years. There was also a remarkable increase of 50% in cruise passengers likely to choose the Cunard brand for their next cruise.

Although Dingle is very confident of sustained growth in the UK cruise market, he also anticipates that new regulations aiming to protect the environment will put pressure on all cruise lines to modify the way they do things.

To cut fuel costs and emissions, cruise lines will, to an increasing extent, be promoting their cruise ships as destinations in their own right. According to Dingle, this is already the case with many of the ships operated by companies such as Cunard Lines and P&O Cruises. Their new range of mega-liners provides such a huge variety of activities and facilities that passengers never get bored even if they spend more time at sea. According to Dingle the increased demand for shorter cruise holidays embarking from UK ports is proof of this.