Royal Caribbean Group has high hopes for the Texas market, according to Jason Liberty, president and CEO, speaking on the company’s third quarter earnings call.

Liberty said the Texas market was larger than Florida, “and has a similar cruise consideration, but only half the penetration.”

That has led to a number of key investments and strategic moves, starting with a new state-of-the-art terminal in Galveston, which opened in 2022.

That will be followed by Royal Beach Club Cozumel and a bigger project in Perfect Day Mexico.

“Perfect Day Mexico is strategically located to deliver exceptional vacation experiences in both the Eastern and Western Caribbean, and supports our ambition that every guest on the Royal Caribbean brand will have a Perfect Day on their Caribbean itinerary. It also allows us to further grow the large and growing Gulf Coast area,” Liberty said.

Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, also noted there would be a larger volume of short cruises out of Texas, Louisiana, North Florida and Tampa.

“And of course, we’ll be able to offer really an extraordinary short break from these ports to Perfect Day (Mexico) and Royal Beach Club Cozumel. So we think that’s really a huge competitive advantage,” Bayley said.

“We opened up our brand-new terminal (in Galveston) just around when we came out of the pandemic, that’s been a huge success. It’s incredibly efficient, and it can handle the large Oasis- and Icon-class ships. So when you think about that class of ship operating on short product to Perfect Day Mexico and Royal Beach Club, we think we’ve really got a great product offering for our customers out of Texas and all of the Gulf ports.”