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EUROPE: NUMBER OF CRUISE PASSENGERS DOUBLED
Date 25.03.2013

The European cruise market continued to grow in
2012, with 6.14 million cruises booked by Europeans last
year, according to figures provided by the Cruise Lines
International Association (CLIA).
The number of European cruise passengers has more than
doubled in eight years, as it was 2.83 million in 2004.
It reached 3.12 million in 2005 and then 5.45 million in
2010 and for the first time crossed the milestone of 6
million in 2011.
Over the past five years, the European cruise
market thus grew at an average of 8%, emphasized the
CLIA statement. As in previous years, four out
of five Europeans chose to take a cruise in Europe last
year.
The Mediterranean remains the most popular destination.
The French clientele increased by 9%, with 481,000
passengers, against 441,000 in 2011, and is still the
fifth largest in Europe. The first market is by
far the British with 1.7 million cruise trips, an
unchanged figure from 2011.
Following in second position are the Germans with 1.55
million cruise passengers, which is an increase of 11%.
But with the economic crisis, 2012 was marked by the
collapse of the Spanish clientele (-18% or 576,000
cruise passengers, against 700,000 in 2011), and to a
lesser extent Italy (-9% to 835,000, against 900,000 in
2011). Italy remains the third European market and Spain
fourth.
The most notable trend was the growing success of cold
water cruises in Northern Europe, with a 10% jump in
attendance in 2012, at 1.33 million cruise passengers.
African
coastal, river and lake cruises
Africa
Travel Magazine's Associate Editor/ Publisher
Muguette Goufrani (left) first visited Africa on a
cruise from Europe along the Gold Coast and Ivory
Coast. While Muguette and her family enjoyed every
aspect of the cruise, she liked Cote d'Ivoire so
much, she ended up working there for several years
as a travel agent and automotive agency credit
manager. The same thing happed to her during a trip
to Gabon. More of her
Ms. Goufrani's views on Cruising Africa to appear
during 2001 in this section and in print.
Comments
from our ATA presentation to the
Peace Through Tourism Conference,
Glasgow, Scotland, 1999:
"You've seen what the Cruise Industry has
done for Alaska and the Caribbean, with their
floating hotels and a vast armada of pocket cruise
ships.
Can you imagine what would
happen if Africans built a profitable cruise
industry around their most ancient means of travel?
Just think of romantic adventure cruise
opportunities on our lakes, rivers and our
historic, exotic coastline? The Gold Coast, the
Ivory Coast, the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian
Ocean Coast and its treasured islands, the Red Sea
and Suez Canal. Yes, as Mr. Salia says about
Africa, "Water transport is generally neglected and
undervalued." Perhaps this sleeping giant will also
awaken."
Written by
Jerry W. Bird, Editor, Africa Trave Magazine:
Presented by Hon. Mike Gizo, Tourism Minister of
Ghana
We are
currently compiling our editorial selection for the
Africa Cruise Section. In the meantime, here are
some popular cruise web sites:
Africa Red
Sea Cruises
http://www.orientlines.com/Africa/redsea01.html
Major
cruise ship companies site
http://www.leaderships.com ............
Small Ship
Cruise Lines
http://www.smallshipcruises.com
River
Cruises, ec.
http://www.prowsedge.com/
Cruise
Alaska in the wake of
Haida Chiefs and Great Explorers
By Angela
Warner
"From the soaring
tree-clad mountains, to the looming glaciers, to
the breathtaking waterfalls, the passing panorama
is just so vast, so overwhelming, it would take the
most cynical and world-weary not to be impressed by
it." See previous page
on this
site.
William
Kelly
At our Air &
Marine Tourism Conference, we had the pleasure of
hearing a talk on Cruising by Mr. William Kelly of
Vancouver. A trained journalist and veteran travel
writer, William Kelly is an expert on cruising. His
company, Ocean Cruise Guides, has published a
series of guidebooks which are distributed
worldwide. Current titles include Alaska By
Cruise Ship, Caribbean By Cruise Ship and
The Complete Cruise Handbook, used by travel
agents and cruise passengers as a reference source
and indispensable guide when cruising.
http://www.just-alaska-cruises.com/
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