The cruise market and ports' expectations

摘要

The cruise industry is today one of the fastest-growing sectors of the shipping business and is affecting port development strategies more than ever: this article will focus on the trends in the European market. The worldwide cruise traffic has recently crossed the threshold of 5 m passengers in a single year and as many as 7 m - or even 10m - are predicted by the year 2000. The outlook is particularly positive for Europe whose share of the world market, measured in terms of cruise capacity placement, has grown remarkably over the last few years: the figure for 1997 amounts to 22.4 per cent (15.8 per cent for the Mediterranean and the remaining 6.6 for western and northern Europe) compared with 42.3 per cent for the Caribbean, which remains the core of the market.