The miami cruising cluster capeloto 12 as alfred

The Miami Cruising Cluster

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As Alfred Marshall addressed in his article, “The Agents of Production: Land, Labour,
and Capital and Organization” one reason industries can initially begin to localize is because of
the physical conditions of a particular location. In the case of Florida, the climate and beaches
attracted many entrepreneurs to create touristic clusters. The cruising industry, as stated
previously, started solely in North America, so as the industry began to develop, the choice of
where to locate within the United States was clear cut because of the physical conditions of the
possible locales. Thus the Cruising industry began to cluster in Miami, Florida in the 1960s and
1970s with the startups of Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966, Royal Caribbean in 1968, and
Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 among others no longer in existence. Miami was ideal for the
cruise industry because it already had the touristic feel of Florida as well as the climate. The area
also had a well established infrastructure including four international and domestic airports
which allowed passengers convenient access to and from the port of embarkation. The number
one physical condition that made Miami ideal for the industry was the fact that it had a large port
that would allow direct access to the Caribbean. This direct access to the Caribbean cruising
route was of vital importance for each company to be competitive and ultimately successful in
the industry. This need to access the Caribbean was a result of it being the preferred route and the
largest portion of each company’s profit came from this route. Additionally, one possible reason
for the industry locating in Miami was that at the outset of the industry they targeted an older
demographic and Florida had a large retirement population. This fact seems to be more then
coincidence since according to Martin Kenney in “Locating Global Advantage” proximity to the
customer base can be a major factor in deciding where to locate. Thus, the formation of this
cluster can be seen as a move by the early industry players to be close to both the major
consumer base and the major market which was the Caribbean.

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Figure 1 in the appendix is a map of this cruise cluster in Miami Florida. The cluster
reaches from the University of Miami, which is the lowest educational institution on the map, to
Everest University-Pompano Beach, which is the very top institution on the map. Thus, I defined
the cluster and drew the boundaries to include the educational institutions in a 50 mile area from
the port of Miami. The company did not make any of the following information on the location
of headquarters, subsidiaries, etc specifically known. Other information such as the suppliers,
and crewing, staffing, and talent agencies Carnival has contracts with is not made publicly
known. The fact that the company is so secretive meant that to acquire the following information
and bring the cluster into view I searched for each element that appears on the map and
determined its influence on the cluster to establish whether it belonged in the cluster or not.