According to the ShipPax "Market:07" report, the number of cruise vessels in January 2007 comprised 383 operating cruise vessels and 37 new ones on order. All in all, they provide a lower berth capacity of more than 425,000.
In order to achieve economies of scale, the average capacity of new buildings increased from 1,773 beds (2000) to 3,086 beds (average 2004-2010). Naturally, this development is also related to the size of the cruise liners. Many of the new ships will have Post-Panamax size, i.e. they will be wider than 32.2 m. In terms of gross tons, the exceeding of 200,000 gt will take place in 2009 for the first time.
The number of worldwide cruise passengers will be increasing from 15.0 million (2006) to 25.0 million (2015) with an annual growth of about 6 %. More than 150,000 employees work on board cruise liners, of which 25,000 are officers.
The constant growth of the cruise industry requires a permanent and increasing recruitment of seagoing personnel. Since the ships entering the market are bigger than ever and cost up to 1 billion USD per unit, the required level of responsibility for the ship‘s crew raises. Furthermore, the cruise vessels of the new generation go with their complexity far beyond the current outfit of merchant ships. Thus, they demand highly skilled experts to manage the additional challenges.
