Cruises represent the most growing sector in the tourism business: more than 13,4 million of passengers went on a cruise during 2005. People are encouraged to experience a cruise because ships are getting more and more luxurious and bigger. The foreseen delivery of almost 30 new units within 2008 is the most evident sign of development and interest by cruising companies. The European market has huge potentialities and eventually many ports have begun to strengthen their structures in order to receive a higher number of vessels together.

An estimate 5.830.000 passengers are predicted to move through Italian ports during 2006 for a total of over 3.940 vessel calls (2005 closed with 3.873 calls). Moreover, the flow of cruise passengers during winter season over the last ten years has quadruplicated, exceeding half million of passengers during 2005. Italy has been confirmed again the first cruise destination in the Mediterranean before Spain for total number of handled passengers (3.500.00). Civitavecchia, with 1.200.000 expected cruise passengers, gets near threatening Barcelona (1.200.00 passengers during 2005 and 1.400.000 expected during 2006) in the Mediterranean port ratings.

According to the forecast outlined by Sergio Senesi, Cemar CEO, there will be a great increase of passengers visiting Italian ports: a growth of 15,4% compared to last year.

"This is a very important result which has confirmed the developments of the Mediterranean Cruise Market after a careful analysis. Taking into consideration all factors and after interviewing 56 cruising companies, we noticed an increase in passengers due to very large cruising vessels with an above average capacity."

This result, which is referred to the increase of vessel calls of about 2% compared to 2005, indicates the great offer for larger ships. Costa Crociere and MSC Crociere have strengthened their presence in the Mediterranean with the latest new ships offering cruising during winter season. Companies such as Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Princess Cruises have each positioned all new units in the Mediterranean. Others, such as Cunard, P&O , Norwegian Cruise Line and Oceania Cruises maintain their position in this area.

During 2006, the Spanish market continues to register a strong presence with about 400.000 passengers and the fleets of Pullmantur, Travelplan and Iberojet.

Another confirmation of the expansion of the offer in the Mediterranean during 2006 comes from Carnival. The world cruising leader will be present again with Carnival Liberty, the new flagship which joined the fleet in July 2005.

The Italian ports have been benefited from the increase in cruises over the last two years and will have to reach new targets for the passengers traffic: we are talking about Livorno (590.000), Napoli (950.000), Civitavecchia (1.150.000), Palermo (260.000), Venezia (900.000), Messina (230.000), Bari (280.000), Genova (450.000) and Savona (600.000).

Even new destinations, such as Catania (90.000), La Spezia (60.000) and Trieste (50.000) are beginning to obtain the first results. Particularly Portofino (42.000) and Sorrento (40.000) are able to maintain the levels of the last seasons, unlike other ports that cannot keep up with them at the same way. For this reason there is a big boost for both number of calls and number of passengers, with peaks of 6/7 ships and about 15.000 passengers a day during high season.

"This is another great opportunity for Italian ports - explains Sergio Senesi - which can demonstrate to have reached a good technical and operating maturity and to be capable of receiving such a high number of vessels together, excluding fantastic and utopian plans which are often needed only to satisfy political positions. In fact, from a logistic and structural point of view, not all of these ports are capable of effectively managing and supporting such a high passenger flow (unfortunately, there could be the risk of creating traffic jam and inconvenience for passengers). That is why we ask the ports to begin a planning of vessel calls on the basis of real possibilities; we also ask to create a clearer method of coordinating and monitoring berth reservations, which is quite simple through the modern technologies and the Internet. It could be a solution for getting over the structural limits of piers and the quality of ground services."

The river cruise market has also been growing constantly from several years. It offers a variety of scenery, cultural, oenological, gastronomic and thematic itineraries on the discovery of at least 12 European countries, navigating on at least 18 rivers, with an extremely favourable quality/price ratio.

With more that 60 ships on the main European rivers, the river cruise sector handles about 450.000 passengers every year, with an increasing percentage of Italians. Among leader companies : CroisiEurope, with the most modern fleet, holds the 35% of the market (150.000 passengers during 2005, 25 ships, 30 years of experience) followed by Viking River Cruises, Seetours, Peter Deilmann.

The river cruises departing from Venice are carried out on the Po river on the route Venice - Cremona. Several years ago these cruises were operated by four ships of different companies, but today there is only one ship (M\V Michelangelo) belonging to CriosiEurope.

Reserch based on CEMAR data - Sergio Senesi

CEMAR AGENCY NETWORK: CRUISE division celebrates 20 years of activity. Born as a company dedicated to yacht assistance, today Cemar is specialized in the cruising market and represents some of the main cruising companies in the world.