17 Jul 13 - 11:22
CLIA report with statistics on the cruise industry’s economic impact in 2012
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) issued report including key statistics on the cruise industry's economic impact in 2012 and analysing how the North American Cruise Industry contributed to US Economy during last year.
According to the report, after a strong rebound in 2010 and 2011 from the recession induced impacts of 2009, the North American cruise industry continued to expand in 2012 but at a more moderate pace. In both 2010 and 2011 global passenger carryings and available bed days increased by approximately 10 percent. This increase allowed the industry to reach new highs for capacity and passenger carryings. As shown in Table ES-1, the growth in both capacity and passengers slowed to 5.5 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. A number of factors played a role in this deceleration including: i) the deepening recession in Europe which reduced demand for cruises, especially in the Mediterranean; ii) the negative publicity following the Costa Concordia incident, iii) the continued weak growth in consumer discretionary spending in the United States; and iv) continued redeployment of capacity from the North American markets to other regions, most importantly Asia and Australia.
During 2012, there was a net increase of five ships bringing the global fleet of the North American cruise lines to 185 ships with 333,714 lower berths. The 3.9 percent increase in lower berths was the slowest since 2005. The moderation in capacity growth during 2012 was primarily the result of the removal of larger ships, most notably the Costa Concordia. Once again, there were no 5,400-passenger ships introduced during 2012, or even, a 4,000-passenger ship. In fact the largest ship introduced during 2012 was the 3,650-passenger Carnival Breeze. The additions also included: Celebrity's Reflection (2,850 passengers); Costa Fascinosa (3,012); Disney Fantasy (2,500); MSC'sDivina (3,400); and Oceania's Riviera (1,250). The removals included Costa Allegra (804), Costa Concordia (2,930) and Oceania's Insignia (684).
The major characteristics of the North American cruise industry's activity during 2012 are as follows:
- By year-end 2012, the cruise industry's ocean-going fleet showed a net increase of five vessels to 185 ships with a combined capacity of 333,714lower berths.
- During 2012, the industry carried nearly 17 million passengers on cruises around the globe. This represented a 3.8 percent increase from the previous year.
- Data published by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) shows that an estimated 10.6 million U.S. residents took cruise vacations throughout the world and accounted for 63 percent of the industry's global passengers.
- An estimated 10.1 million cruise passengers embarked on their cruises at U.S. ports during 2012, accounting for 59 percent of the North American cruise industry's global embarkations and represented a 2.5 percent increase from 2011. Florida, whose ports handled approximately 6.1 million embarkations, accounted for 60 percent of all U.S. cruise embarkations, the same share as in 2011.
- The cruise lines and their passengers and crew directly spent $19.6 billion on goods and services in the United States, a 4.0 percent increase from 2011. The cruise lines spent nearly $16 billion while passengers and crew spent slightly more than $3.6 billion.
For more information, please click here to view the CLIA Report
