Cruising is Growing in Many Ways

Cruising is now big business, only last week private equity group Apollo Management became a major shareholder in Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) having spent $1 billion for a 50 percent share of the company. Apollo has also recently purchased Oceania Cruises and has a deal with Regent Seven Seas and is a growing force within the industry. So what else is growing within the industry? Well the cost of a new build is staggering, Royal Caribbean are spending no fewer than $1.2 billion on just one ship, the yet un-named Genesis class ship due in service in the fall of 2009.

Ships have grown rapidly, not just in cost but in size over the last few years. When you consider that Titanic was 52,300 tons and considered in its time to be a monster of a ship; nowadays car ferries are just as big. Royal Caribbean Cruise Line are renowned for being innovative within the world of cruising and are pushing the boundaries with their new cruise ship that will make the Titanic appear nothing more than a barge. At 220,000 tons the Genesis class ship will surpass the Independence of the Seas, due to enter service this spring, which at 158,000 tons will be the joint largest cruise ship in the world at present. It begs the question, just how big can they make a cruise ship?

There is no doubt, wherever you look in the world of cruising, there is some form of growth. This year there is set to be 5 new builds and a couple of renamed ships cruising out of the UK alone. Add to this the number of new to Europe ships cruising out of the Mediterranean ports and Costa Cruises are set to send two ships to Dubai compared to only one last year. This all adds up to the number of ports being visited by cruise ships is set to reach an all time high.

Another growing aspect is how we receive the news of what the cruise companies are doing and that is via the cruising website. Independent cruise websites are growing almost daily as more people try to get on the bandwagon of an industry that appears to be on a never ending uplift. The Cruise is one of these new, growing websites and has been designed by Drabdesign a UK based search engine optimisation company that has a history of cruising websites. What makes The Cruise stand out is the look and feel of a real newspaper and although it is still being worked on, it will have an archive of a whole year's news. Being split into sections means if you are interested in the growing number of new builds, or news from a specific location such as US Based Cruise News even destination news, it will have it all.