The global cruise industry is continuing to experience significant growth, with research from AAA and Tourism Economics predicting 2026 will mark a fourth consecutive year of record cruise passenger numbers. This growth could strengthen coastal tourism economies through increased port revenue, higher visitor numbers and local employment.
When examining specific destination regions, analysis from Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) reveals the growing popularity of the Caribbean. In 2024 alone, almost 15 million cruise passengers visited the region. This represented an increase of over 17 per cent compared to 2023 and accounted for 43 per cent of all total global cruise passengers.
However, this rise in popularity is presenting challenges for some Caribbean nations. In particular, there is increasing pressure to balance attracting cruise vessels with preserving the natural environment of the region. Hydrography – the process of increasing our knowledge by mapping the seabed – is central to achieving this and is a vital tool as the cruise industry continues to grow.
Cruise ships operated by several cruise lines docked at Nassau in The Bahamas (Photo: Unsplash/Fernando Jorge)
Managing increasing cruise tourism
For island nations seeking to attract cruise vessels, one of the primary challenges they can face is inadequate or outdated nautical chart coverage for new destinations or their ports. Nautical charts enable vessels to safely manoeuvre in and around ports and tourist destinations by providing key navigational information.
Up-to-date chart coverage is a major consideration for cruise operators evaluating potential destinations. It determines the level of navigational risk which can attract lower vessel insurance premiums and help reduce the reputational and safety risks associated with accidental groundings or maritime incidents.
Additional challenges arise in the evolving size of cruise ships. While most cruise ships are generally being built bigger to carry more passengers, smaller vessels are also being built for boutique cruising. The latter can access remote and shallow areas where other vessels haven’t gone before, including smaller ports, posing a risk when adequate knowledge about the area is missing.
As a globally recognised biodiversity hotspot, there is also a focus from Caribbean nations on protecting their local marine ecosystems. This includes ensuring visiting cruise vessels avoid ecologically sensitive areas, where physical damage can have long-term environmental consequences. Similarly, decisions around port investments, including dredging and infrastructure development, need to be carefully weighed up against environmental conservation.
To address these challenges, it is important for island nations to build an accurate understanding of their maritime environment within which these vessels operate.
Value of hydrographic surveying
Hydrographic surveying measures the physical characteristics of bodies of water and their surrounding areas. For island nations, hydrographic surveying is crucial to determine water depths to identify underwater hazards within port limits and their approaches. To support survey work, tidal ranges and surface currents are also measured, as well as additional environmental parameters.
When compiled to produce nautical charts, detailed information on the depth and nature of the seabed enables mariners to understand the navigable space available to them, helping to ensure vessel and passenger safety. It can also help to identify and avoid natural and man-made hazards, including sandbanks, shipwrecks and offshore infrastructure.
Beyond safety, hydrographic data provides foundational data for sustainable management of marine resources and informs coastal adaptation in the context of rising sea levels and flooding. It can also be used to identify particularly ecologically sensitive areas, including coral reefs and seagrass beds. Once identified, these locations can be designated as protected areas where specific rules, such as speed restrictions and anchorage regulations, can be established to reduce the risk of ecological damage.
Increasing survey accuracy
For island nations looking to modernise nautical charts and better understand their marine ecosystems, one challenge they can often face is a lack of up-to-date data. In some cases, hydrographic surveys of shallow-water areas of the Caribbean were last conducted over a century ago, meaning they are not fit-for-purpose for navigating large cruise vessels in confined waters.
Importantly, the shape of the seafloor can undergo significant changes over time. This ranges from man-made obstructions like shipwrecks to the natural movement of sediment due to tidal currents and waves. In areas that experience extreme weather events or have a particularly dynamic seabed, large scale shifts can create new navigational hazards that require more frequent surveys to maintain safe navigation.
The techniques used to measure water depths in historical surveys can also introduce inaccuracies. Many early measurements were made through lead line surveys, which used a rope with depth markings attached to a lead weight that was dropped to measure the water depth at single points. This approach was time-consuming and meant only a few spot observations could be made. This meant potential hazards in between observations could be missed.
Today, hydrographic surveys use advanced sonar technology instead. By sending out sound pulses and measuring the time taken for them to bounce back, modern echosounders provide faster, more efficient and precise depth measurements. Multibeam echosounders, which send out wide fans of sound waves, provide 100 per cent coverage and avoid the need for estimating between points. Using this approach, detailed 3D maps of the full seafloor can be created, giving the highest possible confidence in survey accuracy and charts.
Hydrographic surveys map the physical characteristics of bodies of water and their surrounding areas, including identifying underwater hazards (Photo: Unsplash/Ricky Beron)
Collaboration and capacity development
The increasing popularity of the Caribbean region as a cruise destination, combined with the economic benefits cruise tourism can bring, has demonstrated the value that taking a proactive approach to attracting and managing cruise visits can offer. This has motivated many regional governments, port authorities and, more recently, cruise vessel operators to begin actively investing in conducting hydrographic surveys of their waters to ensure fit-for-purpose charts are available for their newest and largest vessels.
The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is the charting partner for many nations in the Caribbean. The growth of the cruise industry in the region has also resulted in an increasing interest in UHKO’s advice and support. For example, in 2016 cruise ship operators advised Grenada’s Tourism Board that the lack of up-to-date charts was limiting port calls to Grenada, which was receiving around 150 port calls at the time. Whilst the responsibility for hydrographic surveying lies with the nation, with funding from the UK Government’s Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme, the UKHO enabled a large-scale seabed mapping survey of the shallow waters around Grenada, including a high-resolution survey to the cruise terminal of the port of St Georges.
The surveys allowed sparse 19th-century lead-line observations to be replaced with a high-resolution 3D surface of the seabed to underpin the navigation charts for the area. The surveys also discovered new wrecks and obstructions which are now charted to give the latest information to navigate cruise ships with thousands of passengers safely to St Georges. Whilst updated charts will not have been the only contributor, port calls in Grenada reached 245 per year by 2019, marking a 60 per cent increase.
More recently, the UKHO worked with Saildrone and the Cayman Islands Government to support seabed mapping of the Cayman Islands’ entire exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Over 90,000 square kilometres of seabed has been surveyed using an uncrewed surface vessel. Saildrone’s survey platforms harness the power of the wind to undertake these time-consuming surveys, ultimately benefitting vessels navigating the waters around the Cayman Islands. As a result of these survey efforts, this will be the first Caribbean nation to have mapped its entire EEZ in high resolution using modern technologies. The UKHO is currently processing the data from the surveys, which will be provided to the Cayman Islands Government and incorporated into updated nautical charts of the region.
Other developments in the region include an increasing number of nations joining the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), the body responsible for coordinating global hydrographic surveys and promoting consistency between nautical charts. In 2025 The Bahamas, the largest cruise ship registry in the world, and Panama, the biggest overall shipping registry in the world by number of vessels, became Member States of the IHO. This marks a commitment from these nations towards further strengthening their hydrographic capabilities and highlights the growing recognition of the value of accurate, up-to-date hydrographic data in the region. In The Bahamas, the interest has not been limited to government; several cruise ship operators have relied on the specialist services of the UKHO in recent years. The UKHO has produced bespoke electronic charts for the approach to, and berth at, the increasing number of private island destinations being developed by cruise lines.
Supporting tourism, now and into the future
With tourism in the Caribbean heavily relying on safe and healthy seas, and tourist numbers in the region rising each year, accurate hydrographic data and up-to-date nautical charts can provide Caribbean island nations with considerable economic and environmental benefits. Whether by reducing the risk for the newest and largest vessels to visit its tourist destinations, sustainable management of marine resources or developing their own hydrographic capabilities, collaboration is essential to achieving this goal.
Coordinated engagement between island governments, hydrographic surveyors, chart producers and international bodies can deliver comprehensive chart coverage and a deeper understanding of the marine environment. This, in turn, can incentivise cruise operators to visit ports and enable governments to manage these visits effectively, unlocking economic opportunities while safeguarding the region’s globally recognised biodiversity.
Koen Vanstaen is international hydrographic portfolio manager at the UK Hydrographic Office.