Boarding Pass
This week, we go to sea. On Wednesday, I was at a media briefing at MSC Cruises, which is gearing up for its local season. The numbers are amazing. In the 1970s, Lauro Lines (MSC Cruises’ ancestor) carried roughly 2,500 passengers in SA waters every year. By 1991, that number had risen to 5,000. Now the line has eight itineraries in local waters with 60 departures every season and expects to host 170,000 passengers this season.
No matter how cynical and jaded one might be, that is spectacular growth.
It is, in fact, the story of how cruising has boomed around the world. The fast ocean liners, so cherished by earlier generations who sailed in them because they were transport, are long gone. Now there are behemoths, some carrying up to 7,000 passengers, sailing from port to port in the Caribbean or the Med, taking people to exotic ports or on family holidays or, simply, on voyages where the ship itself is the destination.
Cruise ships have done what jet airliners did before them: they have made travel more affordable. Think about the economies of scale of getting 7,000 guests into a floating hotel and you have a good idea of why this is a great business model.
Of course, the big ships are not everyone’s idea of fun, which is why the cruise industry has more niches than a Medieval cathedral: rivers, adventures, yachts, party boats, boutique cruise ships, theme cruises, sailing ships, voyages to the ends of the Earth ... There is, as the old saying goes, something for everyone.
You should go.