TAMPA, Fla. — Many travelers are choosing more affordable vacation options, helping drive record cruise traffic at Port Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
While overall road and air travel is expected to remain relatively steady this Fourth of July holiday, travel by cruise ship, train and bus is projected to increase by 5%, according to financial website Nerdwallet.<\/p>\n
That trend reflects a growing demand for budget-friendly trips.<\/p>\n
At Port Tampa Bay, the holiday travel rush is already underway, with cruise terminals filled with passengers eager to begin their summer vacations.<\/p>\n
Port officials said the facility is on pace to welcome nearly a quarter-million more cruise passengers this year, representing an expected 8% increase in annual passenger traffic.<\/p>\n
Officials said they expect more than 10,000 passengers to depart from Port Tampa Bay on Fourth of July cruises this year, with two holiday sailings already underway.<\/p>\n
For many travelers, the holiday also marks their first cruise experience.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what to expect because I’ve never done this before,” said cruise passenger Caleb Cochran, traveling with friends for a wedding celebration. “But for America’s 250, this is going to be a pretty fun experience.”<\/p>\n
According to Port Tampa Bay Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Raul Alfonso, affordability continues to be one of the biggest factors driving cruise demand.<\/p>\n
“When you look at if you’re going to have to fly somewhere\u2014a family of four\u2014you have the airfare and hotels and meals,” Alfonso said. “It’s all-inclusive. It’s the perfect vacation for a family to go, and you just don’t worry. By the numbers, it is the best deal by far.”<\/p>\n
The port experienced its largest surge in passengers during this year’s spring break season, traditionally the busiest period for the cruise industry.<\/p>\n
As passenger numbers continue to climb, port officials say the primary challenge is available capacity.<\/p>\n
Port Tampa Bay currently operates three cruise terminals, with a fourth terminal under construction. Once completed, the expansion is expected to increase the port’s capacity to approximately 2 million cruise passengers annually.<\/p>\n
“We have huge demand, and we have great support from our cruise lines,” Alfonso said. “They love Tampa, they love what we’re doing, and we’re planning long term.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. — Many travelers are choosing more affordable vacation options, helping drive record cruise traffic at Port…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,276,2635,115,135,137,136,278,107],"class_list":["post-324459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jason-lanning","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}