Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has announced that more Europeans than ever booked a cruise in 2014, increasing 0.5 per cent compared to the 2013 figures.
Since the beginning of the global financial crisis in 2008, the European cruise market has grown by 44 per cent.. According to the latest figures available, cruise economic impact in Europe approached US$44 billion in 2013, providing nearly 340,000 jobs.
In 2014 Germany became Europe's first source country with 1.77 million passengers, while France consolidated itself as the fourth largest source market in Europe, with a growth of 13.7 per cent.
At the same time there was a decrease in capacity deployment in the Mediterranean, which affected several markets, due to cruise lines' individual strategies and a backdrop of continuing economic difficulties in the EU.
