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The European Cruise Council (ECC) released a study that shows the cruise industry accounts for more than a quarter of a million jobs in Europe, over €10 billion direct expenditure and 15 million visits to European ports. The results were unveiled by at the industry’s second annual “European Cruise Contribution” in Brussels. “This is the first time we’ve been able to compare annual trends and the impact of the cruise industry on European job creation, wealth and tourism,” said David Dingle, chairman of the ECC and chief executive officer of Carnival U.K. “Every million euros spent by the cruise industry creates 2.2 million euros in business output and 21 jobs, paying an average wage of €33,500.
There is no doubt that the revival of European shipping has helped to establish Europe as the new centre of gravity for the cruise industry. But what’s particularly impressive is how quickly our industry has beaten our own forecasts. When the first economic impact study was published last year we predicted we’d achieve a quarter of a million jobs and 3.6 million cruise passengers embarking on their holiday in Europe by 2010. We’ve hit that already, with a raft of impressive growth statistics which show how fast the cruise sector is growing in importance to European economies — embarkation figures are up 20 percent, passenger visits are up 21 percent, direct expenditure is up by 27 percent and ship construction is up by 32 percent.”
The ECC commissioned the report together with Euroyards, MedCruise and Cruise Europe. Cruise companies, shipbuilding yards and cruise passengers now account for €10.6 billion of direct expenditure in Europe, a 27 percent increase over 2005. During 2006, the global cruise industry spent an estimated €4.1 billion on cruise ship construction and maintenance in Europe. This is almost a billion euros more than in 2005. At the end of 2006, European shipyards were under contract to build 36 cruise ships with a combined value of €14.9 billion through to 2011. The cruise industry is responsible for 225,586 jobs across Europe — a 20 percent expansion compared to the 187,252 jobs in 2005. At the end of 2006, there were 44 cruise lines in Europe with a fleet of 118 ships and capacity for 100,000 passenger berths. Another 47 vessels with capacity for 51,300 berths were deployed in Europe by non-European lines.
Between 1995 and 2005, demand for cruising worldwide more than doubled from 5.7 million to 14.4 million passengers. Over the same period the number of Europeans taking cruise holidays around the world more than tripled from 1 million in 1995 to 3.4 million in 2006. Europeans now account for 23 percent of cruise passengers worldwide, compared with just 19 percent 10 years earlier. The ECC report predicts that 4.1 million cruise tourists can expect to be sourced from European countries by 2010. That could reach 5.1 million by 2015. The most popular country for cruise ports of call in Europe is Italy, which welcomed 3.4 million cruise passengers to ports such as Naples, Civitavecchia and Livorno in 2006. Spanish ports including the Canary Islands are the second most popular, welcoming 2.8 million cruise passenger visits. Greece welcomes the third largest number of cruise visitors in Europe. The top five European cruise destinations are Italy, 3.4 million; Spain, 2.7 million; Greece, 2.5 million; France, 1.39 million; and Norway, 1.13 million. “European Cruise Contribution” was prepared by G.P. Wild International Limited and Business Research & Economic Advisors.
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