Florida Tops Cruise Economic Impact Analysis

The cruise industry is an increasingly dominant player in the U.S. tourism sector, according to a new study from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). The newly released CLIA 2018 Economic Impact Analysis found the cruise industry in the U.S. had an economic impact of over $52.7 billion in contributions in 2018, marking an increase of over 10 percent since 2016. 

The top 10 states benefiting economically from the global cruise industry are:

1.  Florida
2.  California
3.  Texas
4.  New York
5.  Alaska
6.  Washington
7.  Georgia
8.  Illinois
9.  New Jersey
10.  Louisiana

Florida and California, with a total of nine cruise ports between them, accounted for 68 percent of the U.S embarkations in 2018. Florida, whose ports handled 7.51 million embarkations, accounted for about 59 percent of all U.S. cruise embarkations. Meanwhile, embarkations from the two cruise terminals in New York increased 12 percent since 2016, and ports in Galveston also experienced a 13 percent embarkation increase in 2018 compared to 2016.

Around 13 million cruise passengers worldwide embarked from ports in the U.S. in 2018, an increase of nearly nine percent from 2016. In 2018, cruise lines, their passengers and crew spent a record $23.96 billion in the U.S., a 33 percent increase since 2010. Additionally, 2018 saw a new peak in the cruise industry’s U.S. expenditures, generating 421,711 jobs across the U.S. and contributing more than $23.15 billion in wages and salaries, a nearly 13 percent increase since 2016.

The report is available here.