cruise traffic 10% above last year's!

[Jason]

Cruise line traffic is running 10% above last year

Cruise lines carried more than 5 million cruise passengers worldwide in the second quarter of 2004, up 10 percent from the same period last year, the Cruise Lines International Association reports after polling members.

North American passengers grew 10.6 percent to 4.3 million passengers while foreign-sourced passengers rose 6.5 percent to 696,693 passengers during the first six months of the year, CLIA said.

The average length of a cruise trip during the first half of 2004 averaged 6.99 days, up slightly from the 6.97 days averaged in 2003. CLIA members represent over 95 percent of the cruise capacity marketed in North America.