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.