The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) announced today that eight cruise line groups have agreed to be merged with CLIA in order to operate under a common organization.    

The associations are the European Cruise Council (ECC), Asia Cruise Association (ACA), Passenger Shipping Association (PSA/ACE), France’s AFCC, Brazil’s ABREMAR, Northwest and Canada Cruise Association (NWCCA), Alaska Cruise Association (ACA), and International Cruise Council Australasia (ICCA).

CLIA will be governed by what it is calling a "Global Executive Committee," chaired by Carnival Corporation Chief Operating Officer Howard Frank.

Christine Duffy will continue as the President and CEO of CLIA.

The new CLIA global organization will represent the cruise industry at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) based in London, and the International Labour Organization in Geneva.

The CLIA press release is silent regarding what new member lines will be joining CLIA.

In my view, the consolidation of these smaller cruise groups under the CLIA umbrella will strengthen South Florida-based CLIA’s lobbying efforts world-wide and also infuse CLIA with additional money from the additional cruise line members. It may also help CLIA deal with critics of the cruise industry’s environmental practices, cruise ship crime issues, and exploitation of cruise employees.

The inclusion of these various cruise organization under one roof is the natural evolution of the multi-national cruise lines increasing their control of the international cruise industry.