Germany grew by 5% to become the first European source market with 1.77 million passengers
By
Rebecca Gibson |
A record 6,387,000 Europeans took a cruise in 2014, marking a 0.5% growth in Europe’s source market compared to 2013, according to the latest figures from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
Since the start of the economic crisis in 2008, the European cruise market has grown by 44%.
“Once again, the number of Europeans choosing a cruise holiday has hit a new record, reaching 6.39 million passengers, despite the ongoing economic difficulties in Europe,” said Pierfrancesco Vago, CLIA Europe’s chairman and executive chairman of MSC Cruises.
Germany grew by 5% to overtake the UK to become the first European source market with 1.77 million passengers in 2014, mainly due to capacity increases from German cruise lines AIDA Cruises and TUI Cruises.
While the Scandinavian source market increased by 5.6% and the French market grew by 13.7% to become the fourth largest in Europe, both Spain and Italy reported decreases due to a decrease in ship capacity in the Mediterranean. Spain’s passenger source market decreased by 4.5% due in part to the closure of Iberocruceros. Although Italy remained the third largest source market, its figures declined by 3.1%.
Capacity was moved away from UK ports, causing the number of British and Irish passengers taking a cruise to fall by 4.8% to 1.64 million in 2014. However, the number of these passengers taking fly cruises increased by 3%.
“2015 is all set to be a landmark year with many additional cruise ships sailing from British waters including P&O Cruises’ Britannia, Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas, Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess and Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ Magellan, and this augers well for a renewed growth in passenger numbers from the UK and Ireland,” said Andy Harmer, director of CLIA UK & Ireland. “The UK and Ireland continues to have one of Europe’s highest rates of market penetration for cruise holidays. Our industry is putting massive investment into new ships – over US$11 billion in the next two years alone – and we’re confident that the future prospects continue to be bright.”