Frank Hendrickx

The World Cruise Industry

Since 1980, the North American cruise market has recorded a compound annual growth rate of 7.6%. The United States and Canada are by far the largest market sources for cruises. As a result this growth rate is very much representative of world wide cruise growth. It makes the cruise industry one of the fastest growing types of holiday experience in the world.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Selected Caribbean Destinations

When cruise lines develop new itineraries, a myriad of factors are taken into consideration. These range from logistics, such as provisioning or tendering, to the public perception of an itinerary or individual destination. Although some factors are universally important, the role of many others may vary depending on the size of the cruise line and its vessels. In addition, port selection criteria may have a different weighting for ports-of-call and for home ports. For instance, airlift services, a good connection between the air and sea terminals and hotel capacity play a decisive role in the case of home port activities but are not considered in the choice of ports-of-call.

Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses in the Major Ports of the Caribbean Region and the Colombian/Venezuelan Subregion

This chapter will consider the existing and planned container facilities, terminal ownership and management, performance, strategy, opportunities and threats for each of the main port players in the Caribbean region and the Colombian/Venezuelan subregion.

Lessons and Conclusions

The scan of the strengths and weaknesses of Caribbean container ports, presented in Chapter III, confirms that high turbulence is to be expected in the region for a number of years to come. Since the introduction of containers on the main shipping routes, the Caribbean had been lagging behind in time, space and scope. Things were happening all over the world except in the Caribbean, or so it seemed.

Past and Present Container Terminal Performance in the Caribbean and Adjacent Sub-Region (Colombia / Venezuela)

The first chapter discussed the present and expected future operational environment of container shipping in the Caribbean and Central America some of the main developments such as the globalisation of container services, the search for further economies of scale, and the increased emphasis on hub ports and multi-layered feeder operations, were highlighted.

Containerisation: The Overall Picture

New logistic concepts such as globalisation, outsourcing and JIT have created the need for the establishment of complex international distribution chains. Their ultimate goal is to allow shippers to place the right product on the manufacturing or retail floor anywhere in the world at the right time and at the right price. As a result global logistic service providers have emerged in the past two decades. Their priority objectives emphasise the paramount need of satisfying customer-driven demand. To achieve this objective, they frequently rely on partnerships with industrial, distribution and transport entities.

Impact of Structural Changes in the Cruise Industry on the Competitive Position of Caribbean Destinations

In this chapter, the main findings regarding the cruise industry’s development in the past decade are summarised. The major trends and structural changes will also be highlighted in order better to assess the impact of these changes on Caribbean destinations. The latter subject will be discussed in Chapter IV.2.

The Caribbean Cruise Industry

At present, the Caribbean has a market share of almost 50% of the world cruise market. In popularity, the Caribbean is followed at a considerable distance by European, Alaskan, Trans Panama Canal, Western Mexican, Bermudan and Trans-Atlantic cruises. According to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, there were approximately 10.6 million passenger visits (passenger arrivals) to Caribbean destinations in 1996.