The Boston Globe reports on new figures from The Cruise Lines International Association that show the number of Americans cruising last year dropped 1.7%.
The paper also says that for the first time since CLIA started publishing stats, the number of ships setting sail from US ports fell year on year. In 2004, US embarkations accounted for 77% of all cruises. In 2008, that had fallen to 69%.
Despite the US downturn, the number of people cruising worldwide grew to 13.05 million, an increase of 4%. That's in large part thanks to Europe, where passenger numbers keep on growing.
The number of Brits taking a cruise last year rose 11% to close to 1.5 million, while 4.7 million passengers joined their cruise at a European port - a 68% increase since 2005. In comparison, CLIA reports that the number of people taking a cruise originating in the US was down 1.7% to about 9.3 million passengers.
As for all those missing ships? They are over here. The number of cruise ships operating in Europe in 2008 was up 35% compared to 2005, to a total 192, according to the European Cruise Council.
To quote Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle from a conference a couple of years ago, "cruising lights are coming on all over Europe". Great stuff, but the industry does need the US market to recover as well if it is to fill all the big new ships coming along and start to make money again.
Jane Archer
