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The Global Cruise Industry: Cruising for an Environmental Bruising?
What's available to potential customers of cruise holidays?
Image: The traditional view of cruising - a luxury liner, sun and palm trees. Copyright: Igor Beres, stock.xchng
Cruise holidays are the largest growing sector of the travel industry. More than one million UK holidaymakers went on a cruise in 2004. A typical cruise industry brochure in the UK lists the following among the most popular destinations for those wanting to experience a holiday on the seas:
- The Caribbean
- Canary Islands
- The Mediterranean
- Egypt
- The Red Sea
- Scandinavia
- Antarctica
Tourists can choose from a wide range of ships to use as the base for their holidays; from one of the newly built 'superliners', through river ships, to refurbished former cargo vessels. Fast-growing demand is being served with a rapidly expanding supply of new ships. The Cruise Lines International Association states that passenger numbers have grown at an annual rate of 8% since 1980; 68 ships have been built between 2000 and 2004.
The 2003 Annual Cruise Review, published by the Cruise Information Service (CIS), which is part of the Passenger Shipping Association, a UK trade body for the cruise industry, noted that although new ship orders have slowed down in the past two years, there are still seventeen liners being built for delivery between 2004 and 2008.