We are adding to our fleet, employing new staff and granting numerous contracts to local partners in Germany and in our current 73 destination countries.
The cruise industry is booming. In 2012, 5,200 employees from 25 nations were working on our ships, in addition to 800 employees in Rostock and Hamburg. With the maiden voyage of our tenth ship, AIDAstella in March 2013, the number of our onboard employees once again increased significantly.
According to the Verband Deutscher Reeder (VDR, German Shipowners' Association), the cruise ship industry generated around € 2.4 billion in 2012 alone. With a 12.4% share of total revenue in the tour operator market, cruise operators are essential to tourism and are key in driving growth in the German tourist industry. Cruise operators create employment and increase value added in the regions in which they operate. AIDA cooperates with local agencies for shoreside excursions, employs numerous suppliers, makes purchases in destination regions and makes use of the services provided by local port authorities and harbors.
Over € 70 million flowed into Rostock and the surrounding area in 2012 thanks to the guests and crew of cruise ships and ferries alone. This means that ship travelers generate 13.5% of a total tourism revenue of € 522.9 million. This was the finding of a study carried out by the Institute of Marketing and Services Research at the University of Rostock. Bus and taxi operators in the region benefit in particular. Nineteen percent of their revenue is generated by seafaring passengers. According to the study, on average ferry and cruise passengers generate 4.2% and 3.5% of revenue in the restaurant and commerce industries respectively.
Current figures for the Hanseatic city of Hamburg also confirm that high level of value added ashore by the cruise industry. The Hamburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce has put the overall revenue that the industry generates for the city at over € 200 million per year. With regard to Germany as a whole, Cruise Lines International Association Europe (CLIA) has calculated that cruise operators, their passengers and crew generate direct spendings of € 15 billion per year in Europe alone. They thus make a valuable contribution to city tourism and the hotel industry in Germany.
For AIDA, growth and the sustainable business model in which we also include our partners are intrinsically linked. We base our work on our concept of comprehensive quality. That means that when we make business decisions, we always consider the environment, community, our business partners and the well-being of our guests. The products that we design, use and offer should be recyclable wherever possible. In the best case scenario, they themselves should already be made of recycled materials, because this allows the preservation of natural resources. Our goal is to use almost only closed-loop processes in the long term. This would mean generating almost zero waste. Comprehensive quality also means that the products that we and our business partners use are healthy and practical for their users. As they contain recyclable resources, these products benefit both the environment and business. As well as technical efficiency, this strategy of comprehensive quality is at the heart of our sustainability concept – and is the basis for our future economic success.
