<p>Florida leads the nation not only in the number of passengers leaving on their cruises from the state's ports but also in the number of residents who take cruise vacations, according to a study commissioned for Cruise Lines International Association.</p><p>The study found that North American cruise industry contributed $6.06 billion in direct spending to Florida&rsquo;s economy in 2007, up 3.6 percent from the previous year. That spending generated 126,546 jobs and $5.2 billion in income.</p><p>Last year, nearly 5 million people boarded cruise ships from one of five Florida ports &mdash; Tampa, Miami, Port Everglades, Port Canaveral and Jacksonville. Floridians made up nearly 2.3 million, or 25 percent, of all U.S. resident passengers.</p><p>Among other key Florida findings:</p><p>&bull; Florida's tourism-related businesses &mdash; such as travel agencies, airlines, hotels, restaurants and those that provide ground transportation &mdash; were the main beneficiaries of the cruise industry's $6.06 billion in spending, receiving $2.4 billion.</p><p>&bull; An additional $835 million was spent with businesses in the following sectors: food processors, chemical manufacturers, advertising agencies, management and technical consulting companies, and manpower agencies.</p><p>&bull; Florida continues to have the nation&rsquo;s top three ports for passenger embarkations: Miami, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral.</p><p>&bull; Port embarkations in 2006: Miami had 1.89 million; Port Canaveral had 1.29 million; Port Everglades had 1.28 million; Tampa had 367,000 and Jacksonville had 130,000.</p><p>&bull; Florida benefits as the primary home to cruise line headquarters for the top three cruise companies, which own three-fourths of the North American industry cruise capacity: Carnival Corp. &amp; PLC, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and NCL Corp. Overall, these three companies employ more than 14,500 people representing 40 percent of the cruise industry employment in the United States.</p><p>Nationally, cruise line and passenger spending generated $38 billion in gross economic output, a 6.4 percent increase over 2006, and generated 354,700 American jobs paying $15.4 billion in wages and salaries.</p><p>Direct spending by cruise lines, their employees and passengers totaled $18.7 billion.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>