According to Statista, the global cruise industry generated revenues of 37.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2014, a figure which was expected to increase to approximately 39.6 billion by the end of 2016. The industry made significant recovery after revenue fell below 25 billion during the 2009 global recession. The number of passengers carried by the cruise industry has grown year-on-year and is expected to exceed 25 million in 2019. The average cruise passenger brought a revenue of 1,779 U.S. dollars, but, with expenses per passenger also high, the average profit was only 226 dollars in 2015.
North America was the largest cruise market in the world in 2014, with a market size of 21.21 billion U.S. dollars. According to market research company Mintel, the revenue of the United States cruise market alone is expected to reach almost 50 billion dollars by 2018. The world’s largest cruise passenger source market was also North America, providing 12.16 million guests for the industry in 2014. Most of these came from the U.S., constituting more than half of global cruise passengers.
With revenues almost double that of its closest competitor; Carnival Corporation was by far the largest cruise company in 2014. This success came despite an incident involving one of the company’s top brands, Carnival Cruise Lines, early in 2013. The incident was the third of its kind…
