TravelMole Interview: Robert Sharak, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Cruise Lines International Association

With the establishment of “homeland” ports closer to vacationer’s homes, cruises will have growing appeal to new markets in 2004, according to Robert Sharak, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for CLIA. He told TravelMole: “With many vacationers still reluctant to fly, and if driving is an alternative, the CLIA lines’ establishment of new North American embarkation ports so close to large regional centers will attract a new group of consumers who might not have previously considered a cruise vacation.” But Mr Sharak predicted a strong upcoming cruise year for other reasons as well such as feature-rich ships and new itineraries. CLIA figures released last month showed a record 9.52 million worldwide cruise passengers last year, a 10.2% increase over 2002. “Based on the early results from the National Cruise Vacation Month and the reports of strong Wave bookings, 2004 is looking to be a very positive year,“ said Mr Sharak. The most popular destination remains the Caribbean, based on recently released CLIA statistics. “But several other destinations, including Alaska, Europe and Hawaii are also showing strong bookings,” he added. One emerging trend, he said, is for more families to take cruises. CLIA estimates one million children cruised with their families last year. Mr Sharak declined to predict the future of cruise pricing or whether the deep discounts of recent months would continue. Report by David Wilkening