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2022 a record year for Great Lakes cruise industry

New data showed some 150,000 passengers went cruising this year with still more expected in 2023.

MUSKEGON, Mich. — 2022 proved a record year for the burgeoning cruise industry on the Great Lakes.

New data out this week showed area cruise-liners drew 150,000 passengers and forecasts for the 2023 season has further room to grow.

Cruise the Great Lakes, a consortium created by an assortment of Great Lakes governors and premiers and the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, said in a release the activity equated to an estimated $125 million in economic impact.

Though much of that sum was spent launching, maintaining and staffing the liners themselves, it also served as a cash infusion for ports of call throughout Michigan, its neighbors and several Canadian provinces.

“You never know what happens when people come to the area,” David Lorenz related via Zoom Wednesday. “It always starts with that first stop. And once they visit our area, we know they're going to want to come back.”

Lorenz, who chairs Cruise the Great Lakes, touted the consortium’s efforts to scale the industry.

The route’s growing appeal, he said, meant several new ships with all-new passenger experiences were scheduled to launch in 2023.

“Some of these ships are coming specifically to check out and experience the history and culture of our region,” Lorenz noted. “For instance, there's a National Geographic ship that's coming into our area… We don't know where this is going to go. But we know it's smooth sailing ahead one way or the other.”

Crowds gathered to watch the 320-foot Pearl Mist dock in Muskegon in June.

The spectacle marked the first time the Pearl Mist, a frequent visitor to the area, had pulled into Muskegon Lake in the around two years the industry spent in stasis in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The shoreline saw just over two dozen visits this year in a rebound from the hiatus, according to the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber expressed confidence that the 2023 season would build on that momentum and could prove to be one for the record books.

“Each cruise ship has brought in about $25,000 to the local economy, which is great,” the Chamber’s Emily Morgenstern explained. “For 2023, we have even more on Horizon.”

Cruise the Great Lakes said it expects 170,000 passengers to pull into ports statewide in 2023, an increase of more than ten-percent year-over-year.

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