PORT CANAVERAL — Florida is the captain of the cruise ship industry in the United States, a newly released research report says.
In 2004, five Florida ports (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Canaveral, Tampa Bay and Jacksonville) hosted 58.3 percent of all North American cruises, which is a $30 billion industry with 8.1 million customers annually.
A total of 4.72 million visitors departed from Florida ports, up about 1 percent from 2003’s figure of 4.67 million.
In addition, about 1.5 million Floridians took a cruise in 2004, leading all other states with the largest percentage –17 percent.
Port Canaveral gained business, growing from nearly 1.1 million visitors in 2003 to 1.22 million in 2004 — a 12 percent jump. Port Canaveral handled slightly more than 15 percent of the country’s total cruise volume.
Despite the increase — and a drop in Miami business — Port Canaveral remained in third place, however, among Florida cruise ports, even though it bills itself as the world’s second-busiest cruise port.
The cruise business at Port Canaveral has “flattened a bit,” acknowledges Stan Payne, the chief executive officer of the Canaveral Port Authority.
However, he expects business to improve as the port, known as a leader in three- and four-day cruises, looks at new markets, especially a “2-3-2” cycle to the Bahamas in which a ship goes on a two-day cruise, followed by a three-day cruise and then followed again by a two-day cruise.
“Within the next six months, we hope to have a commitment (for the 2-3-2 cycle) with a smaller cruise line,” Payne says.
In addition, the port is attempting to increase its port-of-call business, which Payne says is the foot in the door in getting cruise lines to home port their ships out of Port Canaveral.
The port is scheduled for 63 port-of-call visits next year, up from 47 this year.
Miami still No. 1
The Port of Miami, meanwhile, is still the state’s — and the nation’s — busiest port for cruise ship business. Despite a 14 percent drop in 2004, the South Florida port handled 1.68 million departures — or 20 percent of all of North America’s business.
Next-door neighbor Port Everglades remained the second busiest port with 1.32 million departures, which represented 16.3 percent of the nation’s cruise traffic.
The top three ports combined are home to more than half of all of North America’s cruise business.
The latest data on the cruise ship industry comes in a new survey commissioned by the International Council of Cruise Lines by Business Research and Economic Advisors. It shows that, in all, one-sixth of the nation’s total economic impact from the cruise industry is spent in Florida.
During 2004, the research indicates there was a noticeable shift in business from larger to smaller ports. Miami, it notes, lost cruise business to Port Everglades, Port Canaveral and Jacksonville.
128,000 jobs in Florida
The direct financial impact in Florida comes from spending by cruise passengers and crews, staffing by cruise lines landside, the purchase of goods and services by the cruise lines, payment for port services and maintenance and repair of the vessels.
That impact in Florida amounts to $5.2 billion in direct spending, plus 128,000 jobs that pay another $4.6 billion. That figure is about 35 percent of the industry’s national expenditures and about 60 percent of U.S.-based cruise employment in 2004.
While Payne knows the cruise industry is what makes Port Canaveral float financially, he has an eye on diversifying business so that any downturn in that industry has less of an impact on operations.
He particularly is eyeing boosting the port’s historically weak cargo business by changing strategies in the way business is approached.
In the past, the port solicited companies to send tonnage through the cargo terminal. Now the port is targeting the terminal operators, steamship lines and shippers who bring cargo into the United States to actually base their operations at the port.
“This is a monumental philosophical shift for this port,” Payne says, adding he believes it can be successful because of the ever-increasing overcrowded conditions at other ports that handle cargo.
As a result, Payne is operating on a two-pronged approach: joint ventures with existing businesses to help them grow and bringing in new companies that will base their cargo operations at the port.
“We’re already working with one potential client,” Payne says. “We will need to build this with one large account at a time, which, in turn, will trigger others.”
By Bob Mervine and Chris Kauffman, Orlando Business Journal
