Buoyant Cruise Industry Set To Increase Jobs, Wealth and Tourism in Europe

The growing popularity of cruise holidays and European ship yards'
dominance of global cruise ship orders is set to have a major impact
on jobs, wealth creation and inbound tourism in Europe, according to
the results of a groundbreaking "European Cruise Contribution" report
released at a major conference in Brussels today.

"This is the first time that figures have been available to
demonstrate the full economic value and scale of the total cruise
industry in Europe," said Mr Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman of the
European Cruise Council (ECC) and chairman and chief executive officer
of Costa Crociere SpA. The ECC commissioned the report together with
Euroyards, MedCruise and Cruise Europe.

"Cruise companies, shipbuilding yards and cruise passengers now
account for EUR 8.3 billion of direct expenditure in Europe and we
expect this to increase by 50 per cent to EUR 12.7 billion by 2010,"
said Mr Foschi. "We can also confirm that the cruise industry is
already responsible for more than 180,000 jobs across Europe and our
analysis shows that this could grow by more than 50,000 to top a
quarter of a million jobs by 2010."

Europe's position as the world leader in cruise ship design and
construction is helping to drive this growth. During 2005 the global
cruise industry spent an estimated EUR 3.1 billion on cruise ship
construction and maintenance in Europe - over 35% of the total direct
European cruise business expenditure. This is expected to rise by more
than a billion euros to EUR 4.4 billion by 2009.

European shipyards are building ten large ships a year for the
next two years and have orders for over 95 per cent of new cruise ship
orders between now and 2010, worth more than EUR 18 billion.

Cruising is also a major source of inbound tourism for European
countries. Between 1995 and 2005 demand for cruising worldwide more
than doubled from 5.7 million to 14.4 million passengers. Over the
same period the number of Europeans taking cruise holidays around the
world more than trebled from 1 million to 3.3 million and in 2005 an
estimated EUR 480 million was paid in commissions to European travel
agents. The rapid growth is expected to continue with 4 million
Europeans taking cruise holidays by 2010 and 5 million by 2015.

Within Europe, 2.6 million cruise passengers embarked on their
cruises from European ports in 2005, ninety per cent of whom were
European nationals. On average, these passengers spent EUR 100 at each
embarkation port city and another EUR 50 at each port visit on their
cruise itinerary. Their holidays generated 13 million passenger visits
to European ports.

By 2010 Europe could experience a million more cruise tourists,
with increasing numbers of American travellers attracted by American
ships that are being redeployed in Europe and by the introduction of
the new generation of sleek megaships. The European Cruise
Contribution report projects that there will be more than 3.6 million
cruise passengers embarking on holiday within Europe and making 17
million visits to European ports by the turn of the decade.

- ENDS-

Editors Notes and Contacts

"European Cruise Contribution" prepared by G.P. Wilde
International Limited and Business Research & Economic Advisors

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*T
2005 economic Finland France Germany Italy Spain UK
impact
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Direct
expenditure
EUR million 621 536 1,073 2,501 683 1,686
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total
remuneration
EUR million 371 310 725 1,810 422 1,457
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Value of new
ocean-going
ship build
orders 2007 -
2010
EUR million 2,628 4,064 4,024 7,919
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total jobs 10,205 7,625 19,969 61,445 13,940 37,319
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Source of
cruise
passengers 16,495 233,000 639,000 514,000 379,000 1,071,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------
*T