The cruise sector. Evolutionary geographies and economic impact

Market developments in recent years has led to a series of profound changes in the perception of the cruise product, of its meaning and its accessibility than in the past, and this about the national and international context. The demand is thus strongly changed, becoming more and more conscious and differentiated and influencing, overwhelmingly, the offer of the cruise product introduced on the market. In the first place from a luxury product, restricted to a small segment of the market, it is then passed to a new product concept, aimed at a wider audience and mass. This resulted in a strong development of the cruise demand that, from the seventies to today, has experienced an unstoppable growth. The paper attempts to analyze the salient aspects of the cruise sector with attention to the geographical dimension of operators and markets bringing finally, some evaluations on its economic impacts.