‘Resiliency and optimism’ in CLIA’s 2021 outlook

New Cruise Lines International Association research shows two out of three cruisers are willing to cruise within a year and 58% of international vacationers, who have never cruised, likely to do so in the next few years.

This is part of CLIA’s newly released 2021 State of the Cruise Industry Outlook.

With the year drawing to a close, we are pleased to share CLIA’s 2021 report that highlights the extraordinary steps the cruise community took to develop and implement enhanced public health protocols to keep putting people first, while continuing to focus on innovation and responsible tourism practices that make cruising the best way to experience the world,’ CLIA President and CEO Kelly Craighead said.

Consumer sentiment

Seventy-four percent of cruisers are likely to cruise in the next few years, with two of three willing to cruise within a year, according to a CLIA-Qualtrics Survey this month of 4,000 International vacationers from eight countries: the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

2019 economic impact

The report includes CLIA’s 2019 global economic impact analysis underscoring the tremendous growth of the cruise industry and the corresponding contributions to the international economy prior to the COVID pandemic. In 2019, cruising sustained 1,166,000 jobs equaling $50.53bn in wages and salaries and $154.5bn total output worldwide.

 Passengers spent $385 in port cities before boarding a cruise and $100 in each transit port.

The industry hosted 29.7m passengers worldwide in 2019, with North America accounting for 15.4m.

COVID job losses

In 2020, every 1% loss of cruisers resulted in a reduction of 9,100 industry-related jobs, according to CLIA. Each day of the cruise suspension caused direct and indirect industry losses of 2,500 jobs.

New ocean ships in 2021

CLIA member lines anticipate debuting 16 new ocean ships in 2021, resulting in a total of 270 CLIA member line ocean ships projected to be in operation by the end of 2021.

(This compares to Seatrade’s orderbook, which counts 26 new ocean ships including those of non-CLIA lines; see Seatrade Cruise Review’s latest issue.)

200 sailings completed since July

From early July through mid-December, more than 200 sailings took place with multiple layers of enhanced health safety measures in place. CLIA said the success of these initial sailings demonstrates new protocols are working to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 among passengers, crew and the destinations visited.

As CLIA members worked to address COVID-19 impacts, the industry also remained focused on a cleaner, more sustainable future. The association’s report highlights a $23.5bn investment in ships with new technologies and cleaner fuels to reduce carbon emissions, partnerships with local governments in key destinations and a commitment to reducing the rate of carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2008.

LNG, scrubbers, shore power proliferation

CLIA said 49% of new capacity on order will use LNG for primary propulsion. More than 69% of global capacity currently utilizes exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers) while 96% of non-LNG newbuilds will have these.

And 58% of newbuilds will be capable of hooking up to shore power, with 32% of global capacity already capable of cold ironing while 25% of existing capacity will be retrofitted for this.

Some 99% of new ships on order will have advanced wastewater treatment systems, bringing global capacity using these systems to 78.5%.

(Source; Seatrade Cruise News 23 December 2021)