The Caribbean region, continue being the most preferred cruise destination; according to FCCA
statistics, accounting for 41.02% of all itineraries. Consumer interest in cruising continues being strong
despite downward pressure on travel in general due to the economy and fuel costs; 77 percent of past
cruise vacationers and 55 percent of vacationers who have not taken a cruise, expressed interest in
doing so within the next three years. All over the world, but especially in the Caribbean region, one
can observe that local governments investing large amounts of money in high quality infrastructures
to attend the colossal ships and thousands passengers arrivals. There are very few studies concerning
the different impacts of the cruise industry to destinations. Then the question is: are we sure that the
benefits of attracting cruises to a tourism destination are higher than the costs? Is it sure that the major
players in the cruise industry, including cruise lines, local governments and population, shore
operators, civil society organizations are taking proactive measures to ensure a sustainable future for
cruise tourism while preserving cruise destinations? Management techniques, such as regional
collaboration to levy head taxes in order to increase economic benefits and limiting total cruise
passengers to reduce social impacts must be coordinated between local governments. With the cruise
industry’s boom, nobody wants to be backward. Maybe that is the reason why several governments,
especially in Latin America, provide surveys and data about the cruise passenger’s expenditure that
are not adequately justified. There are some studies that show values of cruise passenger expenditures
higher than expenditures of normal tourists who have to pay hotel and meals (US$1.690 spent by a
cruiser compared with US$1.180 spent by a non cruiser tourist in a week, according to FCCA).