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Northeast cruise ship business booming
June 15, 2010

New England ports are preparing for what they expect will be a record number of cruise ships during this year's tourism season.

The four-masted schooner Margaret Todd sits at berth while the cruise ship Hanseatic sits at anchor in Bar Harbor on May 27. Bar Harbor expects 119 cruise ship visits this year, compared with only 39 visits 11 years ago.

Tourists stroll through Bar Harbor during a visit by the cruise ship Maasdam on June 4. “The last two or three years, we’ve really spiked,” said harbor master Charlie Phippen.

New England and eastern Canada have been gaining popularity among cruise lines, and this year could be the busiest yet as passengers are drawn to the region's beauty, culture and history. Maine ports expect 335 cruise ship calls this year, up from 281 last year. Ports in the Canadian Maritimes and in Newfoundland are projecting 467 calls, 84 more than in 2009. Boston expects a record 300,000-plus cruise ship passengers to pass through its port.

"The last two or three years, we've really spiked," said Charlie Phippen, harbor master in Bar Harbor, which expects 119 cruise ship visits, compared with 39 the year Phippen started his job 11 years ago. "This has gotten to be a well-established cruise ship region."

The cruise line industry has been growing worldwide for decades, from under 4 million passengers in 1990 to more than 13 million in 2008, according to Cruise Lines International Association Inc. The Caribbean is the top destination by far, followed by the Mediterranean, Europe and Alaska. Success is measured in "bed days," the number of days passengers are aboard ships, and those have been relatively flat or down in recent years in the Caribbean, Alaska, western Mexico and Hawaii.

At the same time, the number of bed days on cruises in the New England-Maritimes region has jumped 60 percent, from 1.17 million in 2005 to 1.87 million in 2009, according to the association. Karen Laverdiere of Acworth, Ga., has gone on Caribbean cruises for years, but she and her husband chose a New England cruise in October for a change. Their Princess Cruises ship sailed from New York and made stops in Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Source :- http://www.pressherald.com/