ses, including debt service. Port Everglades does not receive County property-tax dollars for operations or capital expansion (Novacek, 9).The Port owes much of its growth to cruise ships. The cruise industry produces $3.9 billion in tourism in Broward County’s economy each year. Cruise lines Pujalt 3have plans to build nearly sixty ships by 2004. These ships range from small luxury liners to a new generation of behemoths with a capacity of carrying almost 4,000 passengers. The Port’s cruise business has climbed from 2.2 million passengers in 1998 to 2.7 million in 1999 (Scott, 1). One of the biggest Cruise lines, Princess Cruises, announced that it will build four new ships to be based at Port Everglades (2). Celebrity Cruise Lines plans to build two additional ships by 2002, one expected to be based at Port Everglades. Royal Caribbean has six more ships planned. Holland America Line is building five colossal ships by 2005, of which at least one will be based at Port Everglades (Wyman, 1).Not only are cruise ships taking advantage of the expansion at Port Everglades, but as Doreen Hemlock reports, the volume of container freight increased by 65% in 1995 after the last major expansion. In 1996, the volume rose another 13%. Booming markets in Latin America and the Caribbean are demanding more sailing frequency. SeaFreight line added new, larger vessels; Sea-Land Service added new service between Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean (Bussey, 20). Cargo growth has exceeded projections by 10% in each of the past 5 years (Novacek, 9), and officials expect growth of 3% to 7% yearly through 2005 (Wyman, 6).Projections on the outcome of the expansion of Port Everglades are excellent. Conservative projections show that over the next 20 years this additional property alone will generate $96 million in net revenues. Its development and use is expected to create a $3.4 billion economic profit imp...
