Cruise shipping companies should look forward to further rapid business expansion, a senior industry executive says. David Dingle, chairman of the European Cruise Council (ECC), said in Brussels this week that the European source market for cruises is growing at 11% a year and increasing. This is higher than in North America, which has averaged 8% growth in recent years.
In 2006, Europe generated 3.4 million cruise passengers last year, equivalent to 23% of the global source markets, and the ECC forecasts that there will be 5 million by 2015. Dingle said he personally expects the figure to be reached much sooner, meaning that more than half the new cruise ships to be delivered in the near future should be employed in European markets.
The UK accounts for 34% of the European source markets and continues to develop at a brisk rate, and Dingle predicted that 2.0 million Britons would take a cruise in 2012. The figure for 2007 was 1.35 million and it is expected to rise by 200,000 this year, when several new ships will enter the market. The increase alone is roughly equal to the number of cruise holidays sold in the UK in 1994.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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