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Cruising by boat is a lifestyle that involves living for extended time on a boat while traveling from place to place for pleasure. Cruising generally refers to trips of a few days or more, and can extend to round-the-world voyages. A
cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience. Cruising has become a major part of the tourism industry, with millions of passengers each year. The
industry's rapid growth has seen nine or more newly built ships catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, as well as others servicing European clientele. Smaller markets such as the Asia-Pacific region are generally serviced by
older tonnage displaced by new ships introduced into the high growth areas. Cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port. In contrast, dedicated transport oriented ocean liners do "line voyages" and typically
transport passengers from one point to another, rather than on round trips. Some liners also engage in longer trips which may not lead back to the same port for many months. Traditionally, an ocean liner for the transoceanic trade will be built to a
higher standard than a typical cruise ship, including stronger plating to withstand ocean voyages, most commonly crossing the North Atlantic. The only dedicated transatlantic ocean liner in operation as a liner, as of December 2008, was the Queen Mary 2
of the Cunard fleet. The liner RMS Queen Mary is in service as a hotel in Long Beach, California; the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is slated for similar duty in Dubai, and the SS United States is rusting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with long-standing plans to
return it to service, although this appears increasingly unlikely given its age and condition.
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