The cruise industry is one of the dynamic markets with high investment in port facilities worldwide and in building luxury cruise ships as well. It incorporates elements of the product market, educational activities, and has developed into a spectacular destination. Cruising includes a great part in the tourism chain, including transport, catering, tourism, leisure, and travel. The aim of the chapter is to examine the economic and statistical data of the cruise industry and cruise tourism through a European approach, based on secondary data and research. It further explores the economic impact of the European cruise industry on the European economies. Moreover, the chapter tries to compare the economic impact of the European cruise among the previous years and to ascertain whether these impacts benefit the European economies or not. The evolution of the direct economic impacts are captured and a discussion about the total economic impacts of the European cruise sector is given. This study would offer facilitation in directing future research relevant to cruise tourism.
Top1. Introduction
Tourism is among the world's largest and most rapidly growing industries, has a key vital role in job generation, export revenues, and the added national value and contributes directly to the country's GDP. The cruise industry, in particular, the cruise industry has been regarded as the fastest-growing tourism sector. According to the World Tourism Organization (2008), over the last 20 years, global demand for cruises has grown at a cumulative annual rate of 8 percent. In its turn, CLIA (2015) marks out that over the last 10 years, the global demand for cruises, despite the economic crisis, has risen by 84 percent from 13.1 million passengers in 2004 to 22.0 million in 2004. The main objective of the activity of maritime tourism is to provide the cruise tourism product. As Wild and Dearing (2000) say, the main sectors of the cruise as a tourism chain are transport, tourism, entertainment, and the trip.
Over the past two decades, the cruise line industry has become one of the fastest-growing segments in the travel industry. The cruise industry has already developed into a mass-market using large vessels in accordance with the cruise industry of the 1960s (Rodrigue and Notteboom, 2012). According to Chin (2008), Weaver (2005) and Wood (2000), the cruise industry has become a symbol of globalization of the tourism industry in terms of its market coverage, its practices and the mobility of its assets. MacNeill and Wozniak (2018) emphasis the importance of the cruise industry by considering it one of the major growth areas of international tourism.
With a contribution of 10.4% of the Gross World Product, and serving one in every 10 jobs in 2017, the tourism sector has an important role to play in economies of the world (WTTC, 2018). In comparison with other tourism products, cruise tourism is a specific type of tourism which has experienced significant growth around the world throughout the last decade. Cruise tourism demand is increasing in particular in Europe, which is growing from 4.05 million in 2007 to 6.96 million in 2017 for the number of people who buy a cruise holiday (UNWTO, 2018: CLIA, 2018).
From its origins in the Caribbean (Wood 2000), the geography of the cruising has increased to cover the most part of the world. As emphasized by Rodrigue & Notteboom (2013,p. 13) that cruising ‘has become the salient symbol of the globalization of the tourist industry in terms of its coverage, its practices and the mobility of its assets.’ Today, the major cruise markets are the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Europe, Alaska, Trans-Canal, West USA, Hawaii, and South America. Europe is an important destination for cruisers growing its market share on the world map.
According to new figures published by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in the European Economic Contribution Report, the cruise industry made a significant contribution with € 47.86 billion to the European Economy in the year 2017. The cruise industry is still making significant contributions to the European Economy. The positive economic advantages are apparent, as cruise ships continue to play a major part in the European economy through smart sustainable growth. This represents an increase of 16.9% compared with the previous figure in 2015.
This is thanks to more European cruise passengers choosing a cruise holiday, more cruise passengers traveling in Europe, and the construction of more cruise ships in the EU shipyards. All of this represents significant economic advantages for the entire region. In 2015 and 2017, over 43,000 new jobs were generated by the cruise industry throughout Europe, with 40,621 currently working for cruise and shipping companies. Salaries and other incentives to European workers totaled € 12,77 billion, while the direct expenditure derived by the cruise industry reached € 19,70 billion last year, up from 16,9 billion € in 2015.
The European cruise industry, in general, is quite developed, with a total operating income of about €32,2 billion and approximately €14,2 billion in direct costs, resulting from passengers and cruise companies. Specifically the Mediterranean, which along with the Caribbean comprises the two main cruise destinations with over the 60% of cruise passengers worldwide. In this respect Greece is placed in a developed market, facing direct competition from countries in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Europe remains a vibrant hub for cruising, as the international cruise industry continues to develop and expand to new attractions. Three important factors support this trend: