High seas.

HIGH SEAS Exotic ports of call, resort-style pools, dinner and dancing. A rapidly increasing number of U.S. vacationers are taking to the high seas, turning what used to be a sleepy Caribbean tour business into a booming US$20 billion industry, counting just U.S. bookings and indirect economic impacts, like supplying ships. The number of cruisers from the North American market, largely the United States, rose steadily to 8.2 million a year in 2003 from 3.6 million in 1990, according to industry group Cruise Lines International Association. It expects 9 million to cruise in 2004. "We're seeing the tip of the iceberg in this industry. In 1985, there were a total of 37 ships, and now 20 years later you have over 150," says Terry Dale, president and CEO of Cruise Lines International in New York. Sixty of those ships were put into service just since 2000, Dale says.