<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">A new era in tourism opened in South Carolina on Tuesday as the first  cruise liner to be permanently based on the state's coast arrived.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">The  gleaming white Carnival Fantasy operated by Carnival Cruise Lines  arrived in port as the sun broke through the morning clouds, a sail boat  fired a cannon in salute and a tug boat sent arcs of water spraying  into the air.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">"Today is an historic and meaningful event for  Charleston," said Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "Charleston is one of the  oldest ports in North America and has always had ships calling."</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">"A  world class cruise line, Carnival, has chosen a world class city,  Charleston, as a homeport," added Jim Newsome, the president and CEO of  the South Carolina State Ports Authority.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">In the past, only a  handful of passenger cruises have sailed from Charleston in the winter.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">But  Jim Berra, Carnival's chief marketing officer, said Charleston is a  good place for summer cruises, which is a growing market.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">"We  think it is, simply because the draw in the summer in Charleston is so  strong," he said. "You're offering the guests time either pre- or  post-cruise in an amazing city and then you have the chance to do a  five, six or seven night cruise onto the Bahamas or Key West," he said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">"It  would have been harder if you didn't have the natural gravitation to  Charleston as a tourist destination," he said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">Berra said the  Charleston cruises will attract passengers from Atlanta, the Carolinas  and Tennessee and save passengers the drive to Jacksonville, Fla., or a  flight to south Florida to catch a cruise.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">The Fantasy carries  2,056-passengers and was to sail full from Charleston late Tuesday.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">Some  passengers were already boarding before midday while local officials  and cruise line representatives exchanged small gifts during a reception  in one of the lounges aboard the ship.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">Tourism is an $18.4  billion industry in the state and a study for the South Carolina State  Ports Authority in February found the cruise industry will mean $37  million for the state economy this year.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">There will be 67 cruise  calls in Charleston this year but that number will increase now that the  Fantasy has arrived. During the next 12 months, the Fantasy itself will  call 67 times, Berra said.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">The State Ports Authority is planning a  new cruise terminal in a renovated building on the waterfront, opening  the site occupied by the current aging terminal and surrounding area to  redevelopment.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; color: #000000;">Newsome has said he hopes the new terminal can open  in about two years.</span></p>