Great Lakes cruise ships began setting sail more than 150 years ago. Luxury cruising regaining popularity about six years ago.
“Once we found out about that, we realized, wow, Muskegon has a deep-water port and we should reach out to these cruise ship companies to make sure that they know that we’re here and that we’re a great port for cruise ships.”
Cindy Larsen is President of the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce.
Muskegon is now port of call for three cruise ships. The chamber and Visit Muskegon tracking their economic impact.
“We’re estimating about $700,000 this year. We had 19 ships in, and each ship has a lot of service needs. Just the ship itself. They have to get additional supplies. They get fuel here. They may get some service for the ship while they’re here. But above and beyond that, of course, all of the passengers all participate in excursions. They’re going to museums. They’re going out to the beach. They have shuttles and motor coaches and they have to pay for guides to accompany them every place that they go. They shop. They eat. So, there are all types of ways that these ships can spend money in our local economy.”
It’s estimated 2,500 passengers visited the city. Larsen tells us regionally, nearly 25,000 made roughly 800 Great lakes port visits. That’s an increase of more than 20% over the 2022 cruise season.