Joe Ewart

You might say that Joe Ewart has Captain Stubing to blame for his long career in the cruise business. After growing up in New Jersey where “exotic” vacationing was defined as going to the shore, an overseas stint courtesy of the U.S. Army overseas triggered an interest in travel – although the accommodations left a little to be desired. Fast forward to California in the early 70’s where Ewart took a job generating commercial accounts for a travel agency in the Los Angeles suburbs. Because none of the senior people in the office wanted the trip, he ended up on a weekend travel agent’s familiarization cruise on the original Love Boat from Princess Cruises. And it was love at first sight! Convinced this was the only way to travel, he returned back to work on Monday determined to learn everything about cruising. It wasn’t an overwhelming task because in those days there were 4 cruise lines and about 15 ships to learn. An unexpected result of this education experience was the tendency of the travel agents in the office to send their cruise clients to Ewart to answer questions because he was the “cruise guy”. And so began a love affair that has lasted more than 30 years, encompassed several business ventures and resulted in travel on over 300 cruises. In 1977, Ewart joined Norwegian Caribbean Lines as a sales manager in Los Angeles and in 1980 became director of marketing with primary responsibility for the introduction of the ss Norway which entered service as the world’s largest cruise ship in summer 1980. In 1984, he founded Cruise Holidays International, the first franchisor of cruise-only agencies in the U.S. and grew the company to become a major force in the retail cruise distribution business until its sale to private interests in 1990. Remaining in the cruise and maritime sector, he became a principal in a small cruise line in San Diego and later formed a cruise agency consortium for local retailers. In 1995 Ewart and his family relocated to South Florida to operate a one day cruise line. In 1999 he joined CruiseOne as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. The company merged its operation with Cruises Inc. and within a few years was the largest independent cruise retailer network in the world with over 900 members. With an eye toward the emerging e-commerce sector of the cruise business, Ewart left CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. in December 2006 to form CruiseJungle Holdings a new consumer cruise web site company with plans to launch 2 industry web sites in spring 2007. The 2 sites, www.cruisejungle.com and www.greatports.com are described as informational platforms designed to deliver relevant information in a entertaining manner. Throughout his long career, Ewart has participated in numerous cruise line advisory boards, conducted training seminars throughout the U.S. for cruise agents, and developed several proprietary marketing programs. In 2005, he was inducted into Cruise Lines International Association Hall of Fame for distinguished contributions to the cruise industry.