16.03.09 Seatrade Insider

German source market set to reach 1m

The German cruise market grew a massive 19% in 2008, reaching 907,000, and Europe’s second largest passenger source market is set to hit the 1m mark in 2009, with new capacity from AIDA and TUI Cruises driving this growth, according to panelists at a World Cruise Tourism Workshop today in Miami.

Tom Fecke, gm of Germany and Switzerland for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, said 20% of European passengers are Germans and they prefer to cruise in the Mediterranean (41%) and North European waters (25%).

Fecke added that demand for the Med rose 21% in 2008 compared to the previous year with good flight connections to Barcelona, Venice and Palma assisting in growing the fly-cruise product. He also singled out the Middle East as an area with huge potential to attract more German passengers.

‘Due to the Dubai deployments by AIDA and Costa the number of Germans cruising out of the UAE increased 50% year on year in 2008 and with Royal Caribbean basing a ship there in 2010 this will boost the numbers,’ Fecke said.

Helge Grammerstorf, md of SeaConsult, was very bullish about further growth in the German market in the next decade. Only 1.16% of the 77.8m Germans taking a vacation last year cruised. In the river cruise sector, where Germany is the leader, the figure was less than half a percent and Grammerstorf predicted that by 2018, 2m Germans will be cruising.

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