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ICCL News Release Archives
CRUISE INDUSTRY SPENT $241 MILLION IN LOUISIANA IN 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. (Aug. 31, 2006) -- The cruise industry spent $241 million in Louisiana last year, an increase of 16 percent, and supported nearly 5,000 jobs that paid $161 million 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 Louisiana ranks 15th in cruise industry spending in the United States.
Louisiana's major cruise port, New Orleans, is primarily a point of embarkation for Caribbean cruises. The Port of New Orleans generated 308,000 embarkations during only eight months of 2005, ranking 10th in the nation for passenger embarkations. Following its recovery from damages sustained in Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the Port of New Orleans resumed passenger operations in December and three of its four homeported vessels will return in the fourth quarter of 2006. By September 2007, it will return to its pre-Katrina level of four homeported cruise ships sailing Caribbean itineraries, according to the Port of New Orleans.
"In the first eight months of 2005, passenger embarkations at the Port of New Orleans were nearly equal to that of the entire year of operations in 2004," said Gary LaGrange, executive director and CEO of the Port of New Orleans. "With the first ships returning this fall and four ships committed to homeport operations at the Port by September 2007, we anticipate greatly exceeding our pre-Hurricane Katrina passenger business."
LaGrange added that the Port's new state-of-the-art Erato Street Cruise Terminal - a $37 million project - will open at the end of September 2006 to aid in the recovery. The project includes a 90,000 square-foot terminal and a 1,000-vehicle parking garage.
Of Louisiana's $241 million in direct cruise line spending, transportation accounted for more than $77 million, or 32 percent of the industry's direct expenditures in the state. Another $46 million was spent in the state's manufacturing sector, and $118 million was spent in the non-manufacturing sector, which includes wholesale distribution and administrative and waste management services.
Nationwide, the North American cruise industry generated a total of $32.4 billion into the U.S. economy in 2005, an increase 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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