Growth of the Cruise Line Industry

Worldwide, the cruise industry has an annual passenger compound annual growth rate of 7.38% from 1990 – 2015. Growth strategies to date have been driven by shorter cruises, more local ports, more destinations and new on-board/on-shore activities that match demands of consumers.  The industry is also expanding rapidly internationally and has yet to maximize all its online potential.  “Mega-ship” building is increasing “buzz” about cruising as well as the number of available passenger berths, while further lowering the cost-of-sailing per passenger with economies of scale.   These activities help increase penetration in a core North American market that still has growth potential. Only 52.9% of the target North American market (or 23.1% of the whole U.S. population) has ever taken an ocean cruise.  All the cruise ships in the entire world filled at capacity all year long still only amount to less than ½ of the total number of visitors to Las Vegas

Capitalizing on the capacity growth will be based on sound marketing strategies and brand diversification using a segmentation model of the marketplace,identifying the right pods and then communicating the right value proposition to them.  These and other strategies for industry growth will continue to propel the industry into the future.

A total of 7 new ships were added in 2012 with a total passenger capacity of 18,499.  From 2013 to 2014, a net of 8 more new cruise ships will come online adding 24,508 lower births, or 5.8% to passenger capacity.  The ships from 2013 to 2014 will add $2.3 billion in annual revenue to the cruise industry.

 source: Cruise Market Watch