Hope on horizon for cruise lines

The first signs of the Balearics benefiting in the long term from the current instability in the tourism industry are starting to show. The cruise industry, the first sector in the Western Mediterranean to have been directly hit by the September 11 attacks with massive cancellations from the United States market, is now banking on Balearic and eastern Spanish ports on being its safe haven. Cruise lines are busy relocating their ships, moving them away from potential areas of conflict, such as the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Under pressure from insurance companies which have either upped their policy rates to cover ships operating in the danger zone or refused to insure ships operating out of ports near potential conflict zones and driven by the need to guarantee the safety of thousands of passengers, a number of cruise liners have moved their ships West, out of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.