Critical cruising questions

The cruise sector is growing rapidly but troubling industry findings on safety should be a wake-up call for those involved in safety standards on passenger ships

Published Tue, Jul 16, 2019 · 09:50 PM

ABOUT 30 million people are expected to take a cruise somewhere in the world this year, up from under 29 million in 2018. The cruise sector now provides a living for over a million employees, afloat and ashore, and pays them a total of over US$45 billion. This year there are 272 ships in operation, among them 18 newly built vessels.

In other words, cruising is really big business and the ships themselves are getting bigger. The statistics come from the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). It has more than 50 members, including ocean, river and speciality cruise operators. CLIA represents more than 95 per cent of global cruise capacity.

Earlier this year, the CLIA was one of three organisations that sent an open letter to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). It was copied to many other shipping bodies and written by experienced Norwegian master mariner and maritime expert Arne Sagen and focused on the lessons that need to be learnt from the Costa Concordia incident.

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