How the cruise capital of the world came back from COVID. What it means for Miami port
The cruise capital of the world is showing no signs of relinquishing that distinction.
PortMiami, Florida’s largest port, set a record for passengers served in one year, according to new data on Monday. The port said that 7.3 million passengers traveled in and out during the 12-month fiscal year 2023, which for the cruise industry began October 1, 2022, and ended September 30, 2023. That was nearly twice the four million passengers seen the prior fiscal year.
More cruise passengers even before COVID
Port travel exceeded by 7% its previous record of 6.8 million passengers set in fiscal year 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted one of the most popular vacation industries.
The record activity this year is reflected in several new ships sailing out of PortMiami, including Oceania’s Vista, Carnival Cruise Line Costa Venezia and Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian VIVA. In January, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, is set to depart from the port.
The port also opened new terminals. Since the pandemic, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Corp. and Virgin Voyages have built new terminals at PortMiami. Royal Caribbean Group has a new one expected to open in late 2027.
This is a marked shift from only a few years ago.
Cruise industry shut down in 2020
The coronavirus pandemic shut down the cruise industry for over a year starting in March 2020 due to outbreaks on ships. That hit South Florida’s economy particularly hard since PortMiami and Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale are the two largest cruise ports in the United States.
Activity at PortMiami contributes $43 billion annually to the local economy and supports more than 334,500 jobs.
Yet the cruise industry has staged a strong comeback. It’s even seeing nearly sold-out sailings for many of the longest voyages leaving through early 2024, perhaps representing the final piece of the cruising resurgence. People are paying $25,000 to over $100,000 to sail around the world for several months.
What’s driving that boom?
The world is now wide open, with few or no COVID restrictions, and travel, leisure and adventure opportunities abound. And people are looking to make up for lost time.
That hasn’t always worked to South Florida’s advantage.
Miami sees a change in tourism
In a sign of the slowdown, the number of tourists from the United States visiting Miami-Dade County from January through June dropped by 6% to 6.6 million, according to data from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau provided earlier this year.
Miami-Dade’s average hotel occupancy rate this year through June decreased, according to CoStar, a national provider of financial information and commercial real estate analytics. So did average daily hotel overnight rate and average revenue per hotel room.
Still, cruise passengers are a unique breed and have been a continual huge boon to South Florida’s tourism economy in post-pandemic times. They often relish the 24/7 service provided by ships and don’t care for airports. Many recently had brushes with their own mortality, sentiments that deepened during and since the pandemic, and prefer to go big with travel plans.
How cruise passengers benefit South Florida
Some will go big on the Regent Seven Seas Grandeur, owned by Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, will leave PortMiami on Jan. 6 for a 132-day cruise. Royal Caribbean International started a 274-day cruise from its Miami home port, its longest ever and initial plunge into worldwide voyages, on Dec. 10.
PortMiami’s growth is consistent with global numbers. The Cruise Lines International Association’s “State of the Cruise Industry” report, released in September, projected 31.5 million passengers will sail in 2023, a 54% increase from 2022. That would beat the previous record of 29.7 million passengers in 2019. The growth is expected to continue through next year, with 36 million travelers anticipated aboard cruise ships.
Port Everglades a competitor
Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades is also growing and serving as a formidable competitor. For the fiscal year 2023, it drew 2.89 million passengers, according to its unaudited figures. That is below its highwater mark of 3.9 million, but port CEO Jonathan Daniels told the Miami Herald earlier this year that he expects to reach that volume in 2025.
Last month, Disney Cruise Line started sailing from Port Everglades, the start of a minimum 15-year agreement between the two. Viking’s world cruise also departs from there.
Remarkably, this boom comes despite rising ticket prices. According to Cruise Critic, owned by Tripadvisor, the average minimum cost of a five-night cruise from the United States to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda this December is $736, a 37% increase from December 2022. That’s 10 times the 3.7% inflation rate in the United States during the 12-month period ending in September.
Cargo is growing in Miami
Meanwhile, in cargo, PortMiami also grew, handling 1,098,322 approximately 20-foot shipping containers — exceeding one million for the ninth consecutive year, according to data released Monday. The port handles about 3,000 of those containers a day.
That volume could increase following a trade group’s visit to Japan, led by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. They visited the Port of Yokohama and signed an agreement to establish collaboration in port development, infrastructure, port security and environmental initiatives.
“PortMiami continues to drive our economy forward, creating opportunities for residents and businesses across our country,” said the mayor in a statement on Monday.
