(Reuters) -Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd raised its annual profit forecast and sailed past first-quarter estimates on Monday, betting on higher ticket pricing, pent-up demand and robust on-board spending from wealthy customers.

Easing of COVID-19 protocols on ships after long periods of restrictions has encouraged people, especially from the higher income group, to go on leisure travel while also boosting spending on various on-board facilities from casinos to spas.

Norwegian, which mostly caters to the affluent, has also been raising prices of its tickets to offset the impact from higher costs of fuel and food due to supply chain snags worsened by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

In February, the company said it expected costs to decrease towards the end of the year which would boost margins and help it turn profitable for the first time in three years on resilient leisure travel demand.

M Science analyst Michael Erstad said he expects Norwegian to keep trimming operating costs “where it can and where it does not impact the guest experience”.

Rival Carnival (NYSE:CCL) Corp posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss and beat estimates for revenue in March, shaking off worries of a slowdown in travel demand amid looming concerns of a potential recession in the United States.

Cruise liners saw strong booking volumes and occupancy rates by Americans for the wave season, an important period between January and March where the operators offer special deals and discounts for the year.

Norwegian said occupancy in the first quarter was 101.5%, up from 86.6% reported in the previous quarter.

The company expects 2023 adjusted profit of 75 cents per share, compared with its earlier forecast of about 70 cents per share.

On-board and other revenue during the quarter came in at $613.1 million and made up 33.6% of the total revenue.

Shares in the company were up about 1% in premarket trade, paring some gains after it forecast second-quarter adjusted earnings per share below estimates.