The global cruise market grew by 6.5% to 24.7 million passengers in 2016, exceeding forecasts that the market would grow to 24.2 million people, while China is now the second largest source market of cruise passengers.

In 2015, a total of 23.2 million people took a cruise, an increase of 5.5% on the previous year.

The US remained the largest market with 11.52 million passengers, but China reached the second place by 2.1 million, surpassing Germany that produced 2.01 million passengers. The UK was pushed to the fourth place with 1.79 million passengers last year, Travel Weekly in the UK reported, citing CLIA figures.

CLIA forecast the global market to grow by 4.4% this year to reach 25.8 million passengers.

“In its findings CLIA added that the industry’s growth can be attributed to the continuing development of the Asian market, especially China, with ocean capacity in the region rising to 9.2% in 2016, 38% more overall than in 2015,” Travel Weekly said.