Cruises: more popular, getting longer
More people than ever are cruising and they’re taking slightly longer cruises than in the past, says Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
Strong consumer demand for seagoing vacations drove robust passenger growth with CLIA ships carrying 2.63 million worldwide passengers in the first three months of 2005.
That represented an 8.9% increase over the same period in 2004, said CLIA.
“As the cruise lines continue to attract more and more consumers through non-stop innovation and new onboard options, CLIA-member agencies also continue to play a key role, providing today’s consumers with the latest cruise product information,” said Terry L. Dale, president and CEO of CLIA.
Other first quarter trends:
• Itineraries of one to five days accounted for a 31.7% share of the cruise market.
• Itineraries of 6 to 8 days accounted for 54.3%;
• Itineraries of 9 to 17 days accounted for 13.7%, and cruises of 18 days and longer accounted for 4% of the market.
• The average length of a cruise was 7.3 days versus 7.09 days for the same period in 2004.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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