Cruise spending in US climbs to record $21.7bn

Moreover, total contributions of the global cruise industry to the US economy reached a record $47.76bn in 2016.

This figure counts direct, indirect and induced impacts and includes direct spending by cruise lines and passengers, including food and beverages, fuel, financial and business services and entertainment, as well as the goods and services purchased by the directly impacted businesses and employees from other B2B and B2C enterprises.

All this generated 389,432 US jobs paying more than $20.5bn in wages and salaries.

'The global cruise industry is a critical contributor to the US economy and we see clear evidence of the industry’s positive impact across the country,' CLIA president and CEO Cindy D’Aoust said. The industry, she added, 'continues to prosper and set economic records, and that’s good news for cruise lines, cruise employees, suppliers and passengers.'

According to the study, 11.66m passengers from around the world embarked at US ports in 2016, setting a new high.

The top 10 US cruise ports—Miami, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, Galveston, Long Beach, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, Tampa and Los Angeles—accounted for an 87.2% share of 2016 embarkations.

And Florida, whose ports handled 7.08m embarkations, accounted for nearly 61% of all US cruise embarkations. Embarkations from California ports (Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San Francisco) increased to 1.06m, with a greater number of embarkations from Long Beach accounting for 57% of California’s total growth.

'While Florida remains the center of cruising in the United States, we continue to see steady growth in all four of California’s ports,' D'Aoust said. 'Long Beach had an incredible impact on California’s growth, and we can only expect that to continue as cruise lines complete new terminal expansions and extend long-term leases.'

CLIA’s '2016 Economic Impact Analysis' is an independed study conducted by Business Research and Economic Advisors.

Spending estimates were compiled based on surveys of cruise lines, passengers and crew. Economic impacts of cruise lines, passengers and crew spending were generated using generally accepted input/output methodology.

The full report is here.

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