History of cruise tourism in the 1960s

What is it about?

The late 1950s saw the beginning of the end of transatlantic passenger shipping lines. Contrary to the optimistic forecasts about the future of the sector, the companies had to deal with an irreversible crisis, and some of them found an alternative to the mooring of ships in the emerging tourism market. The first objective of this article is to analyse the two main reasons behind this process, which laid the foundations for the modern cruise industry: the decline of the European transoceanic migration and the development of air traffic. After that, it focuses on the strategic development of the shipping line Ybarra. Started as a marginal activity, the cruise became its primary traffic and involved the internationalization of its initiatives. Finally, the author conducts a quantitative analysis on the cruise activity developed by the Spanish company in the 1960s.

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