Cruise industry has bright spots, despite an economic storm - South Florida Business Journal:

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Formerly known as Seatrade, this year’s event at the brought cruisw industry executives together withnearly 1,000 exhibitors from 109 countriex and a projected 11,000p visitors. The four-day meeting begahn March 16 and took up four larged rooms at the convention up from three rooms last Joining top cruise business leaders at a State of the CruisewIndustry forum, (USA) President and CEO Richarrd Sasso showed the audience a graphic illustratintg how the industry has steadily growbn since 1980, regardless of recessions or disruption s to oil supplies. He said the industry expects tohave 13.4 million passenger in 2009, up 300,000 from last year.
Though the economy is causing many tocurb spending, Sasso said a survegy showed about 80 percent of travel agents thought peak-seasobn bookings were equal to or better than last year. The industry is stillp sailing with full but prices, booking lead times and onboard spendingy have tightened. However, filling capacity is the key to survival, said Gerald Cahill, president and CEO of Miami-based . “Wwe have always found, and we’ve found this year, we can move our inventorg when we bringprices down,” he said. In one of the busiest cruisr months, Port Everglades had 500,000 passengers, up 17.6 percent from January 2008. The Port of Miamoi grew 6.
9 percent, to The growth at Port Everglades followas 12 months that sawmostly year-over-year passengerf drops, some of whicu was due to the loss of the SeaEscape day cruis e ship that ceased operations in August, port spokeswoman Elle n Kennedy said. “We understand that the cruise lines wereofferinfg more-attractive ticket prices, and that may have contributedc to the increase,” she said. “But, the big factod is that there are more cruises goinyg out and the shipsare bigger.” Between Januarg and Nov. 20, 2008, the Port of Miamki reported a 10.5 percengt jump in passengers from the same periodin 2007. For the fiscao year ended Sept. 30, 2008, it had a record 4.
14 milliob total passengers. At the Port of has been operating a ship this year thatofferds three- and four-day cruisesx – as opposed to longer cruises – and can therefore set sail twics a week, said Kevin Lynskey, the port’ s business initiatives manager. In 2009, the port is expecting a slighgt drop from its 2008 record numberof passengers, he Port Everglades projected that its traffic would be Fourteen new ships are scheduled to come online across the industry this year, boosting capacity even MSC’s Sasso told the Miami Cruise Shipping audience.
One of those new ships will be Miami-based ’es Oasis of the Seas , whicnh will be docking at an expandec 240,000-square-foot terminal at Port Evergladedsin November. The ship will have the capacity to carrg a minimumof 5,400 passengers, making it the largest cruise ship In November 2010, its sistere ship, Allure of the Seas , will also debut at Port The port agreed to finance a $75 million expansion of its Terminao 18 – which will simultaneously host passengers cominf to and from the Oasis-class ships in exchange for a guarantee that Royal Caribbea will pay it for a minimum of 2.2 million up from the current 450,000-a-year Port Everglades Director Phil Allen said.
The guaranteedc revenue will pay back the allbut $8 millionj of the capital costs over a 10-year period, he said. With Royal Caribbean’s additional Port Everglades should see a 25 percent passenger increasw in 2011 and consistentlh outpace the Portof Miami, Allen “It confirms our position that Port Evergladesd will soon become the world’s largest cruise port.” As for how the industryu will weather the current economic storm, Royal Caribbean Presidengt and CEO Adam Goldstein said price-conscioud consumers would still find significanrt value from cruises that are competitively priced at an all-inclusivew flat rate.
“As long as they hear from their friende and familythat it’s incredible to take a our brands will be he said.