In 2024, 34.6 million passengers cruised, a number expected to rise to 37 million this year and soar to 42 million by 2028, revealed Bud Darr, president and CEO, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), in delivering the keynote "State of the Industry" address on Tuesday to thousands of attendees attending the 40th annual Seatrade Cruise Global conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
"This is a sign not just that we're getting bigger," said Darr, who took the helm of CLIA just two months ago after Kelly Craighead—who had resigned earlier in 2024—departed the association in late December. "This is a sign of great optimism, that all of us here are in a great place to be, and in an industry whose best days are yet to come."
In the U.S., 17 million passengers cruise annually, a $65.4 billion economic benefit throughout the country. Plus, the cruise industry supports 290,000 jobs representing $2.3 billion in wages directly. Darr also said that one-third of the passengers took their first cruise within the last two years.
And while stressing that the guest experience keeps getting better and better, Darr also pointed to 60 new ship orders on the books. That's not only optimism attributable to cruise companies, he said, but also optimism from the investment community which supports those costly, long-term shipbuilding capital decisions.
Strong "Intent to Cruise"
Cruise industry leaders, shipyard executives, vendors from all maritime sectors, travel advisors and media including Travel Agent also learned these three other important "takeaways" from Darr:
- "The intent to cruise is 82 percent."
- Millennials are the most enthusiastic group that CLIA surveyed.
- In addition, "36 percent of all cruisers are now under the age of 40. This is something to pay attention to. There’s greater opportunity there in that younger group."
"We’re a growing industry, we’re a resilient industry, we operate responsibly." Darr continued. "We’re committed to doing things the right way and doing good around the world. I know that’s going to continue and I’m really looking forward to doing my part to help us all get there, because we have a great future today,
Spreading the Word
Darr outlined his priorities for CLIA this year and beyond. First, he said, it's highly important for CLIA to tell its story across the world about “the economic prosperity that we help bring to communities that really need us" and "the contributions that we’ve made to the industrial base in Europe, in particular. What a great industry and what a great time to be here."
Not only does Darr see his priority as working to unify the organization's internal organization, given the reason leadership shift but he wants to assure that the industry really "functions as one global organization serving the needs of the cruise industry seamlessly. That’s a tall order but we’ll get there. The progression is really good. I like the trajectory, but we’ll take it farther."
At the same time, "I really want to work with our partners not just in the cruise community but outside in the broader maritime community and our entire eco-system because working together we are going to be much, much stronger than the sum of the parts can ever be," Darr stressed.
Look for him to work closely with Michele Paige, CEO of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA). Together, he said, associations working together within the cruise industry can together be a "stronger force than working independently." Look for strengthening of that relationship moving forward, he told the conference attendees.
Handling Global Concerns
Acknowledging that "it's a complex world out there," Darr put it this way. "We love us, our customers love us; but not everyone loves us." He stressed that the industry needs to keep working at handling that and spreading the word that "we're really hard working, honest businesses that care about the environment [and] care about the marine environment in particular because that’s a big part of what we’re offering to our guests."
That's such a big part of the value proposition that "we have to engage with the stakeholders and be patient—stay at it but be patient," he said. That may mean repeating the same messaging many times, he said, noting that leaders in government, industry groups, ports and destinations do change. So, the new people coming in may just not have the knowledge about the industry and its goals.
"In addition, as governments change—and not just in any one country—but across the globe, we have to modify our approaches to make sure we’re reaching the right stakeholders with the right information that’s credible and with the right people delivering it," Barr told the audience
He urged the attendees to "play into that," stressing that the cruise industry isn't just about cruise lines. Rather, it's a much broader group. "It's about the travel advisors who still sell 70 percent of the tickets in the cruise industry," he stressed. "We are really a core part of them being successful in their businesses and they’re all over the world. And they're grass roots—lots of small businesses—and feeding their families as part of this ecosystem."
It's also about shipbuilders, the supply chains that provide products to them, as well as OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), classification societies, ports and destinations. “It’s a complex world out there, but it’s a really powerful world together,” he said. “And I intend to unify as much of that I can by our actions and by engagement, and also to do so within the rest of the maritime community.”
Darr hopes to piggyback on the many industry relationships that he's developed over the years that can pay off for CLIA. “I’ve been on the boards of directors of the major maritime associations," he notes. Now that's translating into “a great opportunity to work together toward common good.
“In exchange for that cooperation, we have great examples to offer,” he emphasizes, pointing to the industry's record in solid waste management. Calling it “best in call worldwide, “it’s amazing what our seafarers do every day with that," he said. Believing that so-called grey water is someday going to be pretty broadly regulated, he makes this point: "But we know how to treat it. We’ve been doing it for years. We have that capability.”
So, look for a Darr-led CLIA to share those experiences and technology with the rest of the maritime community, as well as “being a good partner for them to move forward in a sensible way so the regulatory frameworks" are effective, pragmatic and workable.
Decarbonization
Describing decarbonization the “enormous elephant standing the middle of the room,” Darr said “work is going on this week at the International Maritime Organization" trying to create a "robust, fit-for-purpose regulatory regime, not only for us to decarbonize, but to do so with enough available options that are actually workable for us, so that we can get this done.”
But in the end, he said it’s all about fuel. “It’s not about ‘will.’ It’s not about a shortage of capital—look at our order book” with approximately $59 billion in new ship orders, Darr imparted. Yes, the engine providers and other technology sources that CLIA and the lines are working with “have done a good job in getting the equipment fit-for-purpose and ready” for use with new fuel. But the reality is that the next generation fuel “doesn’t exist yet for us,” he acknowledged.
That said, he urged the industry to stay "on message," given that "we’re not in the business of producing new fuels and developing non-existent supply chains to get that delivered." However, he believes that governments—no matter what ideology they come from—can be very helpful in helping get these fuels to the marketplace in an affordable way.
Always Challenges
Recent global news coverage has focused on overtourism in such spots as Santorini, Greece; Venice, Italy; and even Alaska or smaller ports in Maine, for example. While cruise ships are often blamed for bringing too many tourists, the destinations typically are seeing a growing number of both cruise and land visitors. In many destinations including Venice, land visitors far outweigh the level of cruise travelers exploring ashore.
“We’re always going to have challenges as there’s more and more demand for the cruise industry on the relatively limited number of destinations where we go,” Darr acknowledges. "That’s just going to raise the bar on us to continue on the trajectory [that] we’ve started which is greater and greater engagement with local stakeholders, communities, policy makers, and national level and international regulators that oversee all of this to show that, 'Hey, we really care about this.'”
So, expect CLIA to work collaboratively on solutions to these difficult situations. He pointed to Dubrovnik as an "excellent example" of what the industry has done in collaborating with local officials to help create solutions to local concerns about overtourism. "And frankly you don’t talk that much about Dubrovnik because we had a mayor who really wanted to work with us, and we were very committed to finding solutions and we did.”
Yet, he also understands that “it’s not the same in all ports. The challenges are different, the solutions set is different, but the opportunity is always there to be a better corporate citizen." But Darr also recognizes that “there are some people who are going to be detractors. We’ll never convince all of them. But we can do a much better job of explaining who we are, what we do and how committed we are to good causes.”
Stay tuned here this week for more “takeaways” from the rest of the “State of the Industry” general session and other Seatrade developments.
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