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ICCL News Release Archives
CRUISE INDUSTRY SPENT $1.6 BILLION IN CALIFORNIA IN 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. (Aug. 31, 2006) -- The cruise industry spent more than $1.6 billion in California in 2005, supporting 47,860 jobs statewide, which paid nearly $2.2 billion in wages and salaries. In an annual economic impact study commissioned by the International Council of Cruise Lines (ICCL), Business Research and Economic Advisors (BREA) found that California was the beneficiary of nearly 10 percent of direct cruise industry spending and 14.5 percent of jobs generated by the cruise industry in the United States last year. The state ranked second in the nation in cruise industry spending.
California's four major cruise ports - Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach and San Francisco - have doubled their embarkation numbers since 2001, which totaled 1.3 million cruise passengers in 2005, or 15 percent of all U.S. embarkations. Two ports experienced double-digit growth in 2005 - Los Angeles, the fourth busiest U.S. cruise port in 2005, handled 615,000 passenger embarkations, an increase of 31 percent; and San Diego experienced 35 percent growth with 234,000 passenger embarkations. Long Beach, which was in the top 10 ports for U.S. market share, embarked 363,000 passengers and San Francisco embarked 89,000 passengers. California also is a major passenger source market for cruise lines with 1.1 million Golden State residents taking a cruise last year.
"The cruise industry is important to The Port of Los Angeles and businesses throughout Los Angeles," said Arley Baker, Director of Public Relations and Legislative Affairs at The Port of Los Angeles. "In fact, we are actively growing our cruise business and improving our cruise facilities to accommodate this growth."
California also benefits by being home for the headquarters and support facilities for several cruise lines such as Princess Cruises and Crystal Cruises. Californians comprise approximately 12 percent of U.S. cruise line employees.
Tourism-related businesses such as travel agencies, airlines, hotels, restaurants and ground transportation providers received more than $760 million, or 47 percent, of the industry's direct expenditures in California. Another $500 million was spent with food processors, ship repair companies, petroleum refiners, advertising agencies and insurance companies. Direct spending also benefited other business sectors in the state, including: business service providers such as computer services, software consulting and marketing; legal services; apparel manufacturing; and the entertainment and amusement industries, including artwork and producers of musical and theatrical shows.
Nationwide, the North American cruise industry generated a total of $32.4 billion into the U.S. economy in 2005, an increase of nearly 8 percent over 2004. The BREA study also found that the cruise industry supported more than 330,000 U.S. jobs and paid $13.5 billion in wages and salaries in 2005.
The complete economic study can be found on the ICCL Web site at www.iccl.org.
NEWS DIRECTORS/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS NOTE: Broadcast-quality Beta-SP B-roll video is available upon request. Contact Buck Banks or Julie Ellis at 305-461-3300, buck@newmanpr.com or julie@newmanpr.com.
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