Fewer Americans took cruises in 2008 than 2007, according to new industry data, showing that cruising’s core constituency may be weakening despite continued growth worldwide.
For the first time since 1998, when the Cruise Lines International Association started publishing economic impact reports, fewer cruise ships set sail from U.S. ports in 2008 than the previous year. As recently as 2004, American embarkations accounted for 77% of all cruises. By last year their shares had fallen to 69% as business grew in Europe.
Norwegian Cruise Lines, for example, re-christened its Pride of Hawaii as the Norwegian Jade and now sails it year-round in Europe. The Pride’s departure and that of a sister ship from Hawaii to Miami are being blamed for Honolulu’s 59% drop in embarkations, while cruise traffic from Miami rose 11%.
But the decline in American cruises didn’t keep overall traffic or revenue from growing between 2007 and 2008. Last year 13.05 million people worldwide vacationed on one of the giant, seafaring ships — a 4% increase.
American passenger traffic increased each of the previous few years, though by shrinking percentages, and finally turned negative in 2008. About 9.3 million passengers took cruises originating in the U.S. in 2008, a 1.7% decline.
In addition to Honolulu’s traffic loss, American cruising took a hit from Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas, where embarkations fell 28%. And New Orleans lost 30.6% of its embarkations. Florida, which accounts for 57% of all cruise ship departures, saw a 2.7% increase to 5.1 million.
Sharak doesn’t think the American market is done growing. He said the industry was doing fairly well in 2008 until the economic crisis escalated in September.
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