More Cruise Companies Moving Away From San Diego
Sunny San Diego’s close location to the Mexican Riviera made it the perfect departure point for a number of cruise companies, at least until recently. Holland America has decided to move its operations down to Australia, which means that the Carnival Spirit and the Oosterdam will only be making a few more voyages to the Mexican Riviera before the company closes up shop in San Diego by early 2012. The cruise liner industry hit its peak in 2008, when there were 255 vessels making voyages to and from the Port of San Diego on a regular basis. Just three years later and there are only around 103 ships left.
It took the cruise line industry nearly 10 years to rise to epic proportions, but little more than three years for it to virtually dry up in San Diego. Now that Holland America is leaving the West Coast, California residents will no longer have any ships that make voyages to the Mexican Riviera to choose from. In addition, the city of San Diego will miss out on approximately $100 million in revenues, and thousands of workers will be out of jobs.
California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the US, and even the most affluent areas are not immune. There are so few ships sailing out of San Diego that the entire industry could possibly collapse in less than two years. Although Holland America will not say why they are pulling out of San Diego, it is apparent that they are pulling out of the city to seek out more lucrative opportunities elsewhere.