The 2019 cruise ship orderbook was already at record berth introduction levels earlier this year before Genting Hong Kong added a 5,000-passenger ship for Star Cruises, Hurtigruten ordered a new 600-passenger expedition vessel, and Fincantieri confirmed a small cruise ship delivery for an unnamed client in Q1 to be built at VARD.
This takes a 45,000-berth year and raises capacity introduced further, pushing new berth introductions for 2019 to just over 50,000 berths, according to the cruise ship orderbook.
By comparison, the industry introduced just over 33,500 berths in 2010, and in 2001 added about 30,000 berths, which were the previous two highest years on record, according to data from Cruise Industry News.