Cruise industry injects £2 billion into UK economy, ECC

Southampton Cruise Terminal — Southampton remains the top cruise hub

Despite the economic slowdown, the British cruise industry bucked the trend and managed to grow in 2011, according to data just released by the European Cruise Council (ECC).

The cruise sector generated direct expenditure of £2.28 billion in 2011 in the UK, an increase of 10.2% year-on-year, against the European total of £12.1 billion, up 3.3%. The UK spend is second to Italy, and only France is growing at a faster pace.

The passenger numbers ex-UK in 2011 totalled 1.7 million, an increase of 10.9%, representing 28% of Europe’s total market which grew by 9% to 6.2 million passengers. Total expenditure by cruise lines in Europe rose to a record of £29.66 billion.

Southampton was Europe’s second busiest port behind Venice with more than 1.5 million passengers passing through its gates. The economic impact to Southampton is £2.5 million for each ship turnaround at that port. In terms of employment, 63,834 people are working in the cruise industry, of which 14,486 worked directly for the cruise lines.

ECC executive and CEO of Carnival UK David Dingle said the cruise industry was acting as a ‘catalyst for tourism’ by bucking the trend across Europe. Costa Concordia’s incident in January prompted changes on the safety front, to reassure customers that cruising is not only an enjoyable holiday but also a safe one.

“Booking volumes in the UK understandably paused after the tragedy while people sought assurance but the British market has seen numbers pick up, despite economic concerns which are influencing consumer spending,” said Dingle. “And next year we will see more ships deployed in UK ports which we believe is testimony to the continued confidence in the UK as the world’s second largest source market for the cruise industry”.

Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, chairman of ECC and chairman of Silversea said the on-going economic situation, political uncertainty and high fuel costs will continue to challenge the industry. “Despite this challenging environment, the cruise industry remains resilient and there are good reasons to believe that we will come through this period of uncertainty in a strong position,” he added.