The number of cruise passengers worldwide reached 22.04 million in 2014, which was 3.4% more than in the previous year, figures released by Cruise Lines’ International Association (CLIA) show.
The growth rate accelerated from 1.9% in 2013 over the previous year, but remained well below the annual average growth rate of 6.8% in the 2004-14 period.
The number of passengers sourced from North America reached 12.16 million, which was 2.9% more than in the previous year. However, the rate of growth was slightly below the 3.30% average in the 2004-14 period.
Europe recorded a fall of 100,000 passengers to 6.39 million in a sharp reverse of the 12.2% average growth in the 10 year review period.
The rest of the world generated 3.49 million passengers last year, which was 12.9% more than in 2013. Again the figure fell significantly below the 20.8% average growth rate in the 2004-14 period, the CLIA statistics show.
