CLIA chairman Andy Stuart had good news for hundreds of attendees at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami Beach on Tuesday. He reported that over the past year the industry experienced record numbers, continued strong growth and has responded quickly to unexpected challenges. Statistics compiled by CLIA and released at Seatrade showed CLIA member lines carried a record 11.2 million worldwide passengers in 2005, showing a robust 6.9 percent increase over 2004. Within those statistics, North American passenger totals grew by 9 percent during the same period to 9.7 million guests, up from 8.9 million in 2004. For the fourth quarter 2005, worldwide passenger totals increased to 2.8 million, up 10.6 percent from the 2.6 million who sailed in 2004. Occupancy for 2005 was 103 percent, identical to 2004. Itineraries of one to five days accounted for 34 percent of the cruise market, itineraries of six to eight days accounted for 52 percent. Nine-to 17-day itineraries represented 13 percent of the market, and itineraries of 18 days or longer accounted for .03 percent. The average length of a cruise in 2005 was 6.95 days versus 6.9 days in 2004.
