In the News: Cruise Industry Is Not Sunk

Common wisdom might tell us that cruising and the tourist industry in general is in serious trouble these days.

According to this article from Time Magazine, it’s true that the cruising industry is swimming upstream, but they are fighting hard to stay afloat. (Okay, no more water analogies, I promise!)

The Time piece reports that Royal Caribbean saw a 98% drop in 2008 fourth-quarter earnings and that onboard traffic during the winter months (typically the busiest season of the year) is down on some lines by 25%. That’s the bad news. The good news is that lines are enticing would-be cruisers with rock-bottom fares. And rolling out sexy new ships to stay at the top of their game.

All of which means that despite the sinking economy (oops), there are still opportunities for hard-working, talented people looking for jobs on cruise ships. If you are the adventurous type looking for an exciting career opportunity, check out JobMonkey’s section about Jobs on Cruise Ships. Especially helpful to newbie sailors is this descriptive list of common typical cruise jobs. Ahoy!