Inside Royal Caribbean’s Bold Plan to Transform the $2 Trillion Vacation Industry

Jason Liberty, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, leads one of the most recognized and innovative brands in global travel. With more than 40% of guests new to cruising and millennials driving bookings, Royal Caribbean is reinventing vacations for the digital age.

Under his leadership, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea are redefining cruising as a multi-generational, tech-enabled, experience-driven industry.

At Skift Global Forum, Liberty will explore trends shaping the future of cruise travel, from digital transformation and AI integration to experiential luxury and cross-brand loyalty programs.

“It’s that cruising isn’t solely for a certain generation – it is a true multi-generational vacation offering and with itineraries to all 7 continents, it is the next experience you can’t wait to collect and share,” Liberty says.

“Back in the 70s and 80s, vacation ideas came from magazines and a certain TV show that really drove cruise perceptions as a one-time special experience for an older demographic. Today, social media is blowing up these old perceptions. We’re all endless dreamers now – chasing the next great moment, collecting experiences, and sharing it all instantly on our platform of choice.”

Royal Caribbean’s product innovation is redefining the category:

• Royal Caribbean: Star of the Seas combines Las Vegas-style entertainment, Broadway, all-inclusive resorts, and water parks while transporting guests to top destinations.
• Celebrity Cruises: Celebrity Xcel debuts this November with seven new onboard experiences.
• Silversea: Launching the world’s southernmost hotel in Chile to enhance Antarctic expeditions.

Liberty notes, “Over 40% of our guests are new to cruising, half are millennials or younger, and more than half of millennials say they’re more likely to cruise now than just two years ago.”

“Everything we are thinking about is in service of the guest experience. We’re literally obsessed with deepening our relationship with each and every customer to deliver the best vacation responsibly – our mission,” he says.

“With today’s rapidly advancing technology, the future of vacation travel will continue to be more personalized, more connected, and more experience-driven than ever. And we’re building our business to reflect that with the creation of a modern digital travel platform designed to remove any friction in the process, making it easier than ever for guests to book and design their dream vacations.”

Liberty highlights loyalty innovations: “Last year, we reimagined our loyalty programs, creating reciprocity across all 3 lines and building a vacation lifecycle ecosystem. Now, your status with one brand will be recognized across all brands and there’s nothing like it in our industry. Repeat bookings are already meaningfully rising and cross-brand loyalty is accelerating with nearly 40% of all bookings coming from our loyalty members who spend 25% more per trip.”

“Our goal with this program was to turn the vacation of a lifetime into a lifetime of vacations with us and it’s working.”

“We are infusing AI into almost everything we do in service of providing the best guest experience and making smarter decisions across the board from itinerary planning and pricing to guest personalization. We’re also working toward a future where no two vacations are the same. Our goal is to anticipate what a guest wants before they even ask – from the type of stateroom they prefer, to the dining and experiences that best fit their interests.”

He adds, “Behind the scenes, AI is also helping us become more efficient and sustainable – reducing fuel consumption, improving maintenance cycles, and simplifying complex operations. It’s not just a tech upgrade; it’s changing how we run the business.”

“Our shoreside teams design unforgettable vacation experiences, and technology will continue to enhance the guest experience, but it’s our crew who make impossible dreams possible every single day for our guests. I describe the ship as our canvas and our crew as the color and paint strokes that bring the vacation experience to life. They learn our guests’ preferences, deliver surprise-and-delight moments, and create the emotional bonds that keep people coming back year after year. It’s what turns a great vacation into lifelong memories. Our crew will always be the heartbeat of everything we do.”

“We all know that the speed of change will never be slower than today; and our teams understand that if we’re not disrupting, we will be disrupted. So, we’re moving faster, taking bigger swings, and putting more resources behind the ideas that will define the next decade. We wake up every day thinking about how to create and deliver the best vacation experiences at sea and on land.”

“We have an unmatched pipeline of innovation over the next three years – nine new ships, expanding our portfolio of private destination experiences from 2 to 7, launching a river cruise business line with our signature experience touches and there’s more coming all designed to expand the idea of what a vacation can be.”

Jason Liberty’s session will give travel and hospitality professionals a front-row seat to future trends in the cruise industry, global travel insights, and hospitality innovation. Discover how AI, personalization, and experiential design are shaping the next decade of leisure travel.

Reserve your spot at Skift Global Forum today and explore how to lead in the evolving travel landscape.