Royal Caribbean Cruises has stated that bookings for the following year are on pace to hit historical levels.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Now Royal Caribbean is enjoying some gains today after reporting a promising outlook in their latest SEC filings. Now they're on track to have, quote, "all quarters of 2023" booked within historical ranges at record prices, with bookings accelerating every week. They're also outpacing 2019 levels. Now, they say that customer deposits are at record levels. And over 90% of bookings made in the second quarter were new.

Now, of course, we saw bookings tick up after easing those COVID-19 vaccination and testing requirements on most itineraries last month. And they also cite demographics in their favor. They're talking about COVID leading to that. Of course, higher number of retirees than usual. You have millennials hitting their economic stride. And of course, workers having more flexible work schedules, which they hope will boost cruise travel.

But of course, inflation concerns still hang over the industry. You see their year to date, though, down about 38%. Royal Caribbean said it's also tapping the bond market, though, looking to raise $2 billion to refinance debt that's due next year, making at least a dent in its $21 billion debt load, Seana.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Rachelle, the bookings, that's really interesting here, outpacing 2019 levels. I think we've been asking ourselves for the past two years how long it's going to take for the cruise industry to get back to those pre-pandemic levels. So the fact that they are already seeing that happen, I think, is very encouraging here. It's encouraging here in terms of the investor story.

Now, how the analysts are looking at it, 10 analysts have buys on the stock. The average price target out there, $62. That's about a 30% upside from where the stock is currently trading at $47.39. So at least from the Street's perspective, they think Royal Caribbean, majority of the analysts that cover the stock, think it has some room to run.