CLIA Growing Global

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) reaches the ripe age of 40 this year and is now all grown up, representing the industry with one unified global voice, according to its chairman, Adam Goldstein, reports Montreal editor, Mike Dunbar in this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.

Having burst out of its North American bastion, the trade body for the shipboard vacation business now boasts additional representation in South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia, the president and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises told a recent state of the industry press conference in New York.

And, as far as the state of the industry is concerned, “In summary, it’s going well; not only strong but growing relentlessly,” Goldstein stated.

“When CLIA was created, the industry carried just 4.1 million passengers,” he pointed out. “That number had risen to 17.8 million by 2009 and last year we carried 22.1 million.”

In a separate presentation, Maria Miller, senior VP marketing for Norwegian Cruise line predicted that CLIA’s combined 63-member fleet would host some 23 million cruisers this year – up 4% and 900,000 more passengers than were carried in 2014.

That bodes well for the retail travel industry, said Miller who termed CLIA’s 50,000 travel agent members “key partners” and vital to the sales process.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press by clicking here.