The city of Fort Lauderdale, home to Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, is seeing increasingly large growth in terms of the amount of passengers that pass through the city on their way to a cruise and the city is looking to capitalize on the big business.
In just two years, Port Everglades will become the busiest cruise port in the world and city officials want to get as many of those millions of cruise passengers to stay in their city and spend money locally.
To get things going, city officials agreed in principle earlier this week to start a new bus service to take people from cruise ships into Fort Lauderdale before they take their flights home from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Routes would run to downtown and the beach.
How big of a number are we talking here? It's expected to exceed 3.5 million passengers per year once Allure of the Seas starts regular cruises and many more will follow as a result of a recent deal with Carnival cruise line that will bring an additional 25.5 million cruise passengers over the next 15 years.
