Florida tops in cruise biz, report says

[Jason]

Industry pumps $5.2B into state's economy.

Bob Mervine and Chris Kauffman, Staff Writers: Bixjournals

PORT CANAVERAL -- Florida is the captain of the cruise ship industry in the United States, a newly released research report says. In 2004, five Florida ports (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Canaveral, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville) hosted 58.3 percent of all North American cruises, which is a $30 billion industry with 8.1 million customers annually.

A total of 4.72 million visitors departed from Florida ports, up about 1 percent from 2003's figure of 4.67 million.

In addition, about 1.5 million Floridians took a cruise in 2004, leading all other states with the largest percentage --17 percent.

Port Canaveral gained business, growing from nearly 1.1 million visitors in 2003 to 1.22 million in 2004 -- a 12 percent jump. Port Canaveral handled slightly more than 15 percent of the country's total cruise volume.

Despite the increase -- and a drop in Miami business -- Port Canaveral remained in third place, however, among Florida cruise ports, even though it bills itself as the world's second-busiest cruise port.

The cruise business at Port Canaveral has "flattened a bit," acknowledges Stan Payne, the chief executive officer of the Canaveral Port Authority.

However, he expects business to improve as the port, known as a leader in three- and four-day cruises, looks at new markets, especially a "2-3-2" cycle to the Bahamas in which a ship goes on a two-day cruise, followed by a three-day cruise and then followed again by a two-day cruise.

"Within the next six months, we hope to have a commitment (for the 2-3-2 cycle) with a smaller cruise line," Payne says.

In addition, the port is attempting to increase its port-of-call business, which Payne says is the foot in the door in getting cruise lines to home port their ships out of Port Canaveral.

The port is scheduled for 63 port-of-call visits next year, up from 47 this year.

Miami still No. 1:

The Port of Miami, meanwhile, is still the state's -- and the nation's -- busiest port for cruise ship business. Despite a 14 percent drop in 2004, the South Florida port handled 1.68 million departures -- or 20 percent of all of North America's business.

Next-door neighbor Port Everglades remained the second busiest port with 1.32 million departures, which represented 16.3 percent of the nation's cruise traffic.

The top three ports combined are home to more than half of all of North America's cruise business.

[JoeyandDavid]

Hey Jason,

I really like reading reports like that, I thought it was interesting Port Canaveral, bills its self as # two while actually being third but still who would have thought PC would be even 3rd!,

Thanks again

[DaCruzNut]

A lot of people in Tallahassee are real glad that we have the #1, #2 and #3 ports in the US!