Dear musicians,

The CLIA or Cruise Lines International Association, has posted some more statistics and an overall positive outlook on the immediate future of cruising on their Web site. It’s a long read but don’t worry, I have picked out some of the more interesting tidbits for you.

Before I go ahead I should put a bit of a disclaimer out about CLIA. It is a nonprofit organization but it represents 25 cruise lines and it works closely with the travel agents that book the cruises. So, it goes without saying that the CLIA’s main concern would be the well-being of the cruise industry and thus I’m not sure how reliable their data really is. I have been reading their reports for a couple of years now and I can’t help but notice that they have been nothing but positive.

I get a bit suspicious of their overly positive attitude especially when you compare their findings with what the entertainment departments at the cruise lines tell me directly. If you go by CLIA’s numbers, you’re led to believe that everything is hunky-dory while on the other hand entertainment departments have shortened the rotations of musicians, refuse to pay expensive flights if they can avoid them, lengthen musicians’ employment contracts, and implement company-wide salary freezes.

Now I have to admit that I’m only in contact with entertainment departments and thus don’t get any inside information into the overall state of the cruise industry. Also, the CLIA’s findings are and overall picture of all their cruise lines, including all the departments on ships and thus I may incorrectly assume that if an entertainment department is implementing cost-cutting measures, that doesn’t necessarily say anything about their overall state. As a matter of fact, they may argue that their cost-cutting measures have worked in their attempt to keep cruise fares down which enabled them to keep cruising at full passenger capacity (CLIA claims, for example, that in 2009 the average occupancy of cruise lines’ ships was 104.4 percent).

So, with this in mind, and because of a lack of other reliable sources for cruise data, let’s look at some of the numbers.

Since I’ve been reading CLIA reports one statistic that keeps coming up is the fact that, according to CLIA, 80% of North Americans have never cruised before. Knowing that the same North Americans are making up by far the largest group of cruisers, this is an important number.

Adding to the future cruiser potential is the fact that cruise vacation adoption in Europe and abroad is apparently growing at an “accelerated rate”. For example, in 2009, CLIA says that 76.5% of passengers came from the U.S. and Canada while 23.5% were internationally sourced. International cruisers in 2000, in comparison, were less than 10%. For 2010, CLIA expects an increase in passengers of 6.4%.

To tap into this huge potential, cruise lines are continuously upping their passenger capacity by building more and bigger ships. 14 new ships were introduced in 2009 and 2010 will see 12 new arrivals. Between now and 2012 that number will be 23 new vessels.

So, the potential is there and cruise lines seem to have enough ships to accommodate all these people. Now all we need is enough passengers. Are they in fact signing up in large numbers? CLIA says yes.

CLIA’s travel agents have reported strong interest in cruising for 2010. 75.7 percent of these travel agents expect an increase in sales while 11 percent of them expect a “hold”.

CLIA says that people continue to plan cruises because the latter “continue to rank number one among consumers for perceived value and vacation interest”. The cruise lines are also looking to keep potential cruisers interested by offering shipboard amenities never seen before, such as full-sized waterparks, adults-only areas, comedy clubs and more. Shore excursions will be expanded and diversified, incentives are given to those that book early and the increase of number of ports in the US puts more people within driving distance of a port.

There you have it – huge potential, enough ships and passengers signing up in numbers. What does this really mean for us musicians?

All I can say is that if CLIA got their figures right, it can only be good for us. A healthy company is a good employer. Over the past 18 months or so, getting a gig on a cruise ship has undoubtedly gotten harder. Yes, the cruise lines have shortened their entertainer rotations, but this alone is not why it’s harder to get a gig with them. The fact that more musicians than ever are applying for gigs on ships has a lot to do with growing wait lists. Musicians that may have worked solely on land may be looking to cruise lines for jobs because they can’t find work on land.

So, let’s hope that CLIA is right, that cruise lines will do better in the future. Let’s hope that means more musicians will be needed in the future and that cruise lines start handing out salary increases again. And let’s hope it starts soon.