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Cruises on the rise in Europe
Cruises have significantly increased in Europe while forecasts for the future by the European Cruise Council are optimistic according to data presented in the annual SeaTrade Med Cruise & Ferry Convention held in Naples, Italy.

Gianni Onorato, President of Costa Crociere said “the number of passengers reaching 2,672,000 people in 2003 climbed to 3,213,000 in 2005 which is a 13% increase confirms this trend.”

According to the Cruise Industry the number of passengers will reach 4, 5 millions until 2010 an increase of 17%. In Western countries travel packages turnout in 2005 was 48.15 billions euro (4.1% increase compared to 2004) of which the 8.4% came from cruises. United Kingdom (18% of the total turnout of the tourism market), Italy (12.1%) and Spain (10.4%) were the countries that marked the biggest revenues.

The economic benefits from the cruise industry between 2004 and 2005 showed an increase of 13.1%, while the cruise market share in the total tourism market was approximately 4.1%.

Costa Crociere has managed to triple its sales and passengers’ number (867,000 in 2005) from 2000 to 2005 and it is expected to surpass one million passengers in 2007. Michael Verikios - Friday, October 27, 2006