The English Love Their Cruises
September 4th, 2009 by stevinium, under Travel Agents, Vacations, World Travel. No Comments
This last decade has seen the biggest increase in cruise bookings there has ever been. It has managed to shake off the old conception of being something only enjoyable to those who have retired and have a bit of money to burn, rather than leave it to anyone in their will. Cruise companies have diversified and now offer not only a much larger range of destinations but also theme, length, price, quality and demographic. This has resulted in a huge boom in the market and more people taking to the seas on the vast floating hotels than ever before.
Leading this mass-evacuation of land, is of course the UK. There has always been a history of boat lovers in Britain and it seems that this tradition is still going strong as residents booked a massive 1.5 million cruises last year between them. This is unbelievably 33% of the number of cruises taken by all Europeans. Only Germany has a vague chance of challenging this title with a total of 21% market share according to results from a study conducted by Silversea Cruises at the Seatrade cruise convention in Miami.
The Atlantic Islands and the areas of the Mediterranean were top of the list when it came to most popular cruises locations for Europeans. Which just goes to show that nobody can resist a bit of sunbathing and pure waters. You don’t actually have to leave the boat these days to enjoy a fun-filled vacation. Most good luxury cruises are equipped with multiple swimming pools, dining halls, theatres and even golf courses.
“A rise of just under 70% has been seen over the last 5 years, in the European cruise markets alone…a trend that is set to continue” says chairman of the ECC and CEO of Oceania Cruises, David Dingle.
There are 20 new ships being built as we speak according to Dingle, all of which are bound for the European markets and all hitting the water by 2012.
