: CRUISE INDUSTRY
Cruise industry rebound will come … it’s just a question of when
W
ithout a doubt, few sectors have been hit as hard as the cruise industry during the pandemic. As COVID-19 spread silently around the world, the headlines were fixated on the fate of cruise ships doing their best to journey home as governments locked down their borders and fear of the unknown gripped the world. That was 2020. So, what does 2021 have in store for the marine sector that supports 1.17 million jobs worldwide and contributes over $150 billion in economic activity each year?
Impact
According to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a single one per cent drop in worldwide cruising can result in 9,100 jobs lost. In a fact sheet released in June 2020, CLIA estimated that $64 billion in economic activity, 428,000 jobs and $19 billion in wages would be lost by August 2020
That was 2020. So, what does 2021 have in store for the marine sector that supports 1.17 million jobs worldwide and contributes over $150 billion in economic activity each year? – that’s not even two fiscal quarters! While final numbers for 2020 are not yet published, to give just one example, third-quarter revenues for Carnival Corporation declined 99.5 per cent in comparison to 2019. The impact on cruise destinations is equally heartbreaking. A report from the Federal Maritime Commission, released in October 2020, investigated the consequences of COVID-19 on Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. For Alaska, the cruise industry was responsible in 2019 for over $1.27 billion in direct expenditures with a total employment impact of 23,000 jobs and over
$1.22 billion in wages. About 60% of out-of-state visitors to Alaska arrived via cruise ship in the year prior to the pandemic. While the loss of the industry was felt more acutely in Alaska due to the significance of cruise as part of the overall tourism economic impact, Washington and Oregon both suffered greatly as well. To take just one example, Seattle, homeport to many ships destined for Alaska, saw 211 ship calls (serving 1.2 million passengers) in 2019 — resulting in a total economic impact of $893.6 million in revenue/business output, 5,500 local jobs and $260.1 million in
Photo courtesy of the Port of Valdez
Alaska (Port of Valdez pictured above) has been hit particularly hard with the loss of the cruise industry and its $1.27 billion infusion into the local economy. 10 — PACIFIC PORTS — April 2021
