According to Brida & Zapata (2009), cruise tourism is growing at a vast pace in western Europe in the past 10 years. Moreover, the revenue of cruise tourism represents 3% of the total tourism market and is the fastest growing sector (Brida & Zapata, Cruise Tourism: Economic, Socio-Cultural and Environmental Impacts, 2009) . Cruise tourism is increased almost twice as fast as land based tourism in the past 10 years (Brida & Zapata, Cruise Tourism: Economic, Socio-Cultural and Environmental Impacts, 2009) . Furthermore, at many coastal destinations in western Europe, cruise tourism generates almost 50% of the total arrivals. According to Brida & Zapata (2009) Europe is the third fastest growing continent in terms of revenue of the cruise tourism sector. Therefore, this paper intends to examine the development of cruise tourism in Western Europe in the past 10 years. Firstly, to introduce the topic of cruise tourism, the definition and the history of the sector will be explained. Furthermore, the 3 most common sub-forms will be described as well. Secondly, it will state the main development and the impact on the tourism market of the last 10 years. Lastly, the development of the sustainability of cruise tourism will be explained. Moreover, the energy usage on board and the waste disposal will be described specifically.
Definition cruise tourism
To start off with, it is necessary to introduce the definition of cruise tourism to understand the sector. Cruise tourism is a form of travelling that is luxurious, involves a all-inclusive package, at least is 48 hours and stops at several ports following an itinerary (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012). Furthermore, according to the CBI (2016), cruise tourism is defined as “Cruise tourism is a form of travelling for leisure purposes, involving an all-inclusive holiday on a cruise ship of at least 48 hours, according to a specific itinerary in which the cruise ship calls at several ports or cities.”. Cruise tourism offers a different segment as well, which is “fly & cruise tourism. It is noticeable that the CBI and the Research Centre for Coastal Tourism both use the same definition, which shows that this is the most common definition. The definition of fly & cruise tourism according to CBI (2016) is “travellers first fly to a specific destination, take a cruise trip from there and then fly back, the so-called ‘fly & cruise” (CBI, 2016).
Cruise tourism is a type of tourism that passes ports or stops on its way to the destination. At these stops, guests will be able to start the cruise from that point. Furthermore, based on the amount of ports a cruise ship stops at, a cruise can be a one-way trip or a round trip. In more detail, on a one-way trip guests will have the opportunity to travel to a destination of choice with stops on their way to the destination (CBI, 2016). Round trips consist of passing ports of choice and traveling back through different ports to come back to the starting point (CBI, 2016).
To conclude, cruise tourism is luxurious type of tourism that offers an all-inclusive package and passes ports to reach the destination of choice. The CBI and the Research Centre for Coastal tourism both use the same definition which implies that this is the most common definition. Furthermore, cruise tourism can be divided in another segment, which is fly & cruise tourism.
Sub-forms of cruise tourism
To start off, this part will explain what sub forms belong to cruise tourism. Furthermore, the three most common type of cruises and its development of the last 10 years will be explained as well.
Cruise tourism is a sector that has many sub forms that belong in the sector. The sub-forms that are the most common are world cruises, sea cruises and mini cruises (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012) . Furthermore, cruise types also have a subdivision, which exists out of turnaround cruises and transit cruises (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012).
World cruises
The first sub-form that will be describe is World cruises. A world cruise is a cruise that navigates around the world and a world cruise also consists of different elements. The cruise takes around 60 to 110 days to cross all the ports, which makes it the longest cruise of all the sub-forms. (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012). The passenger could choose between 30 to 60 ports to visit (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012). Furthermore, a world cruise is the most expensive type of cruise and has developed throughout the years to the most luxurious type of cruise as well. According to CBI (2016), world cruises have significantly grown in the past 10 years and the demand for it becomes bigger as well. This is due to more people over the age of 50 wanting to experience a longer holiday in different destinations (CBI, 2016).
Sea cruises
The second sub-form of cruise tourism is sea cruises. A sea cruise ships travels around the whole world for a certain amount of nights, which the passenger decides for him or herself (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012) . Furthermore, sea cruise ships are known as “Giants of the Sea” because of the size and luxurious facilities that are on board (Research Centre for Coastal Tourism, 2012) . As well as the cruise tourism sector in general, sea cruises have also grown, in particular for cruises outside of Europe. (CBI, 2016). However, Europe is still the most cruised continent by Europeans. According to CBI (2016), 54% of Europeans that went on a cruise in 2014, chose to visit the Mediterranean and Atlantic Islands (CBI, 2016). Moreover, 25% cruised out of Europe, in particular to the Caribbean which is an increase of 13% in comparison to 2013 (CBI, 2016).
Mini cruises
The third sub-form of cruise tourism is mini cruises. Mini cruises have the same elements and facilities on board but on a smaller scale. Furthermore, mini cruises are much shorter than sea cruises or world cruises (CLIA, 2016) . The benefits of mini cruises are that the passenger could board on smaller ports and will have more ports to travel from. Moreover, even though the mini cruise ships are smaller, the same type of luxurious facilities are offered. These cruises are popular for younger people under the age of 30 (CLIA, 2016).
To conclude, the three most common sub-forms of cruise tourism are world cruises, sea cruises and mini cruises. These cruises can be subdivided into turnaround and transit cruises. World cruises are the longest cruises and take around 60-110 days to complete. Sea cruises are shorter cruises on a big ship with luxurious facilities. Mini cruises are smaller ships with the same facilities as a sea cruise, but on a smaller scale. These cruises are popular for younger people.
Main development in the past 10 years
To start off, the main development of cruise tourism in the past 10 years will be described. According to CLIA (2016), cruise travel outpaces general leisure travel. Cruise tourism started to grow faster than other leisure travel between 2008 and 2014 by 22% (CLIA, 2016). Cruise line routes have been expanding as well. Since a few years, passengers have the possibility to choose between more destinations and routes. As stated by CBI (2016), this is due to the growing demand for cruise tourism in Europe. The demand has grown by 68% in the last 10 years (CLIA, 2016).
Moreover, the growth of demand is also clearly to see in the response of the supplier. CBI (2016) published that there were 62 cruise lines with 472 operating ships worldwide in 2015. Furthermore, 17.7% of these ships are used for European cruises (CBI, 2016) .
Within Europe in 2014, the top source markets were Germany and the United Kingdom. These source markets held a total of 28% in European cruises, according to CBI (2016). Noticeable is that the Spanish market is performing worse since 2011. Spanish cruise tours had 700.000 passengers in 2011 and this decreased to 500.000 passengers in 2014 (CBI, 2016). This is fairly low in comparison to the 1.8 million passengers that German cruises had in 2014.
To conclude, the European cruise tourism market is growing and outpacing the general leisure travel. Furthermore, the growing demand of 68% in the last 10 is supplied by the cruise tourism suppliers.
Impact on the tourism market
To start off, the impact of cruise tourism on the tourism market will be defined by two different factors. These factors are the economic impact and the social impact.
The first factor is the economic impact. Cruise tourism has made a significant impact on the market. According to the CLIA (2015), cruise tourism generated €119.9 billion in 2014 worldwide. Europe generated €16.6 billion in 2014, which is more than 10% of the worldwide revenue (CLIA, 2015) . Furthermore, cruise passengers have generated €3.64 billion in terms of expenditures in 2014. Moreover, the annual wage for the cruise staff has increased as well to €33,700 (CLIA, 2015).
Secondly, social impact is growing in the market. More people would like to go on cruises and the demand is growing as mentioned earlier before in the main development chapter. In 2013, a total of 5.85 million European passengers went on a cruise within Europe (CLIA, 2015). Furthermore, 14.4 million crew members arrived at European ports, which generates revenue for all the ports in combination with the passengers. By exploring the location, passengers will be tempted to spend more money on their trip.
To conclude, cruise tourism is affecting the tourism market in a positive way and the development of the last 10 years contributes to the revenue that is made on the destinations. This is due to the crew members and passengers that stop at these ports to explore the location.
Sustainability
To start off, the sustainability of the last 10 years will be described.
Energy usage on board
Since the last 10 years, cruise tourism putted in effort to improve the sustainability of the sector. One of these factors that had to be improved was the energy usage on board. By using an “advanced wastewater treatment system”, the water that is produced can become clean. This water system is managed by the cruise industry to regulate this rule for all the cruise lines (Cruise Forwards, 2015). This benefits the energy usage on board since the ship doesn’t have to its own water cleaning system. Furthermore, cruise lines use low energy LED lights and installed special coating to create tinting on the windows to keep out the heat. This results in preserving the energy on board.
Waste disposal and emission
According to Cruise Forwards (2015), cruise lines have a “zero discharge policy”. This implies that all the recyclable waste has to be reused and all the unrecyclable waste has to be stored until after the cruise. Furthermore, cruise lines also changed the regulations for the emissions. Methods to reduce air emissions are developing engines that are eco-efficient for the environment, using power when the ship is docked at the port and operating diesel electric engines (Cruise Forwards, 2015).
To conclude, the sustainability of the cruise tourism sector has been improved over the last 10 years. There are multiple methods to reduce energy usage on board by using water cleaning systems and special coated windows. Moreover, there are multiple methods to regulate the waste disposal and to reduce the air emission as well.
Conclusion
To conclude, cruise tourism has developed quite a bit in the last 10 years. The sub-forms such as sea cruises and world cruises have generated much more passengers and revenue, but also improved their ships and facilities. The main development of cruise tourism is that the demand has significantly grown and created more destinations and routes for cruise tourism. Furthermore, the sector has made a big impact on the tourism market itself. By generating €16.6 billion in Europe, the cruise tourism industry has outpaced the leisure travel industry in general. Furthermore, the social impact on the tourism market grew as well and generated more revenue for the locations of the ports. Sustainability has greatly improved in the last 10 years. Cruise lines introduced methods such as LED lights to preserve energy on board. Moreover, waste disposal and emission are decreasing as well because of the methods that the cruise lines use.