Cruising by old timers: A chance for local and regional development in Europe

Abstract

Nautical tourism in Europe has a continuous growth rate in the last thirty years of approximately 15%. As one of the three main parts of sea tourism, in the same period of time cruise tourism grows approximately 11% per year. There are two main sectors within this range: Large world cruising - performed by large cruise ships and small local and regional cruising - mostly performed by so named old timers. These “old timers” are important for local and regional development and require research. The cruising by old timers is present at each European Nautical tourism markets. You can find them in the Mediterranean region as well as in the Northern areas, sea, lakes, channels and rivers. Main characteristics between great tourism cruising, which is slowly transforming into mass tourism, and “old timer cruising” which preserves the maritime, cultural heritage and the sea faring tradition are necessary to find for the development of cruising by old timers. Are there any differences in the development at various European markets? What is the impact of cruising by old timers on local and regional economic developments? Is there any influence of the large cruising development on the progress or on lagging in growth of cruising by small, local old timers, and if so, in which way? These are the questions that we shall try to answer in this paper.