by Donald Wood
Last updated: 3:23 PM ET, Thu October 5, 2017
A new study from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) revealed a record $21.69 billion was spent in the United States by the cruise industry last year, an increase of 15 percent since 2011.
The study, dubbed CLIA's 2016 Economic Impact Analysis, also found the global cruise industry contributed a record $47.76 billion to the economy in 2016, a growth of 3.6 percent from 2014.
The total includes the 389,432 cruise industry jobs generated in the U.S., which pays more than $20.5 billion in wages and salaries.
"The global cruise industry is a critical contributor to the U.S. economy and we see clear evidence of the industry's positive impact across the country," CLIA president Cindy D'Aoust said in a statement. "We saw cruise lines purchasing goods or services in support of their operations, and passengers traveling for their cruise vacations. The cruise industry continues to prosper and set economic records, and that's good news for cruise lines, cruise employees, suppliers and passengers."
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The CLIA study revealed that 11.66 million cruise passengers worldwide embarked from U.S. ports in 2016, another new record. The 2016 total also indicates growth of 5.4 percent since 2014.
The top 10 cruise ports in the U.S. accounted for 87.2 percent of 2016 embarkations, with Florida handling almost 61 percent of all departures, totaling 7.08 million. California's ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San Francisco handled 5.5 percent more embarkations last year than in 2014, totaling 1.06 million.
"While Florida remains the center of cruising in the United States, we continue to see steady growth in all four of California's ports," D'Aoust continued. "Long Beach had an incredible impact on California's growth, and we can only expect that to continue as cruise lines complete new terminal expansions and extend long-term leases."
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