Most CEOs never talk politics.
Aside from outliers like Tesla's Elon Musk, who seems to like attention above all else, most business leaders know that taking a side in politics, especially the presidential election, risks alienating half your potential customers.
Royal Caribbean (RCL) Chief Executive Jason Liberty would never endorse a candidate or openly take a side in a divisive political argument.
His comments on the economy during his company's third-quarter earnings call did, however, run counter to former President Donald Trump's key argument in his fight to reclaim the office.
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Trump has continually said that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have ruined the U.S. economy.
“I had no inflation, virtually no inflation," Trump said during his debate with Harris.
Biden and Harris, Trump said, "had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country because I’ve never seen a worse period of time. People can’t go out and buy cereal or bacon or eggs or anything else. The people of our country are absolutely dying with what [Biden and Harris have] done. They’ve destroyed the economy.”
Trump has repeatedly used the term "worst economy ever," which is not supported by the data. Journalist Steven Greenhouse made that point in a recent Guardian article.
There’s no denying that many Americans are struggling economically and that inflation was painfully high back in 2022, but inflation is far lower now, and most economists agree that our economy is strong. The unemployment rate is low, inflation is way down, economic growth is solid, and job growth has been remarkably strong. Indeed, the country has added nearly 18 [million] jobs – a record – under the Biden-Harris administration. Not only that, median household income has climbed to $80,610, higher than it was in Trump’s last year in office.
Greenhouse called the idea that the U.S. has "the worst economy ever" a "huge lie."
The journalist's facts were backed up by Liberty's comments during Royal Caribbean's earnings call, even though the CEO was simply sharing what he saw, not taking political sides.
Image source: Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean CEO shares thoughts on the economy
While Trump has said that Americans are struggling to buy the basics, and some certainly are, Liberty painted a much brighter picture of the economy during Royal Caribbean's third-quarter earnings call.
"We continue to see a very positive sentiment from our customers in a macro environment that favors growing demand for experiences and vacations," he said.
"American households are wealthier than ever, with continued wage growth and low unemployment driving strong consumer spending. Spend on leisure has grown a lot faster than most other spend categories over the past 12 months with spend on travel increasing at a faster pace than other leisure categories."
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The CEO says this prosperity will continue.
"Our research suggests that this trend will continue over the next 12 months, with leisure travel spending growing by more than any other leisure category," he added. "Millennials, families and active cruisers are all over-indexing on both leisure travel and specifically cruise travel."
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Spending and customer trends also support the idea that more Americans have money to spend.
"Our addressable market is growing, and we are attracting more new customers into our vacation ecosystem, particularly younger demographics," Liberty said.
"In fact, the majority of our guests this year are either new to cruise or new to brand, while at the same time, our loyalty guests are up 20% compared to last year. Once booked, guests are quickly engaged with us and buying on-board experiences at higher APDs (amounts of spending per day), translating into higher satisfaction rates and higher onboard spend."
Royal Caribbean's shares are up 56% in 2024 and have jumped more than 300% since the end of 2022.
Royal Caribbean's major U.S.-based competitors — Carnival (CCL) and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) — have also seen their shares rise this year. Carnival is up 18.1%. Norwegian is up 24.2%.
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