Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with millions of passengers each year as of 2006. The industry's rapid growth has seen nine or more newly built cruise liners catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, as well as others servicing European clientele. Smaller markets such as the Asia- Pacific region are generally serviced by older tonnage displaced by new ships introduced into the high growth areas.
The practice grew gradually out of the transatlantic crossing tradition, which, despite the best efforts of engineers and sailors into the mid-20th century, rarely took less than about four days. In the competition for passengers, ocean cruise liners added many luxuries - most famously seen in the Titanic, but also available in other ships - such as fine dining, well-appointed staterooms, and so forth.
In the late 19th century, Albert Ballin, director of the Hamburg-America Line, was the first to make a regular practice of sending his transatlantic cruise liners out on long southern cruises during the worst of the winter season of the North Atlantic. Other companies followed suit. Some of them built specialized ships designed for easy transformation between summer crossings and winter cruising.
With the advent of large passenger jet aircraft in the 1960s, the vast majority of inter-continental travellers switched from ships to planes. There are some however, who enjoy the few days of luxury and enforced idleness that a liner voyage affords, so a small niche market has remained for transatlantic voyages. Excluding this exception, the ocean liner transport business crashed. Cruising voyages however gained in popularity; slowly at first but at an increased rate from the 1980s onwards. Initially the fledgling industry was serviced primarily by redundant liners. The first purpose built cruise ships were relatively small, but the size of these vessels has risen dramatically to become the largest passenger ships ever built.
The 1970s television show The Love Boat, featuring Princess Cruises' since-sold ship Pacific Princess, did much to raise awareness of cruises as a vacation option for ordinary people in the United States. Initially this growth was centered around the Caribbean, Alaska and Mexico, but now encompasses all areas of the globe. As of 2004, several hundred cruise ships, some carrying over 3,000 passengers and measuring over 100,000 gross tons, ply routes all over the world. For certain destinations such as the Arctic and Antarctica, cruise ships are very nearly the only way to visit, a fact that is the primary attraction for many tourists.
Present-day cruise liners are organized much like floating hotels, with a complete "hospitality staff" in addition to the usual ship's crew. It is not uncommon for the most luxurious ships to have more crew and staff than passengers.
As with any vessel, adequate provisioning is crucial, especially on a cruise liner serving several thousand meals at each seating. The amount of food and beverages consumed by a cruise ship on an average seven-day voyage is staggering. Passengers and crew on the Royal Caribbean International ship Mariner of the Seas consume 20,000 pounds of beef, 28,000 eggs, 8,000 gallons of ice cream, and 18,000 slices of pizza in a week.
Many older cruise liners have had multiple owners over their lifetimes. Since each cruise line has its own livery and often a naming theme (for instance, ships of the Holland America Line have names ending in "-dam", e.g. MS Statendam, and Royal Caribbean's ships' names all end with "of the Seas"), it is usual for the transfer of ownership to entail a refitting and a name change. Some cruise liners have had a dozen or more identities.
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