This new $1 billion Norwegian cruise ship has a race track on board
A Norwegian cruise company has added a new ship to its fleet, and which is not only carrying several thousand passengers but also has a race track on board!
The Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, one of the major players in the cruise industry, added the Norwegian Bliss to its fleet on April 21. The Bliss is loaded with exciting features to keep the tourists amused until they reach their destination. It cost about $1 billion to build and is an attempt by the company to beat its rivals Carnival and Royal Carribean in the cruise ship game.
"The cruise industry is growing like a weed and every ship is full to the hilt. Every cruise line company is reporting record profits," said Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings to CNBC.
The Bliss is 333.5m long with a capacity of 4004 passengers along with a crew of 1,716. According to the statistics by the Cruise Line International Association, about 25 million people boarded cruise liners in 2017, the number is expected to hit 27 million in 2018. According to cruising.org, to accommodate the influx of new and returning customers cruise lines aren't just building new ships but they are also building more of them. There are about 80 new ships under construction, 27 of them are expected to hit the seas this year itself.
According to the Cruise Industry Outlook, the industry pays a total of $41.1 billion in salaries and wages. The Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian control close to 80 percent of the cruise market space.