The Costa Concordia ship tragedy earlier this year caused "a pause" in UK cruise holiday bookings, it was revealed on Tuesday.
However, numbers have since picked up, said David Dingle, chief executive of the Carnival UK cruise company.
A total of 32 lives were lost when the Costa Concordia struck rocks and turned on its side off the coast of Italy in January.
Mr Dingle, a member of the European Cruise Council (ECC) executive, said today: "After the tragic Costa Concordia incident the world's cruise industry moved swiftly to review and improve operational safety measures, and to reassure customers that cruising is a safe and enjoyable holiday.
"Booking volumes in the UK understandably paused after the tragedy while people sought assurance but the British market has seen numbers pick up, despite economic concerns which are influencing consumer spending."
His comments came as the ECC announced that the cruise industry generated direct expenditure of £2.28 billion last year in the UK - up 10.2% on 2010.
The Costa Concordia tragedy resulted in the death of 32 people>
The European total was £12.1 billion, up 3.3%, with the UK spending second only to Italy and UK growth only behind France.
Together with indirect expenditure the total contribution of the global cruise industry to the European economy rose to a record £29.66 billion last year.
The number of UK passengers who took a cruise in 2011 increased by 10.9% to 1.7 million which represented 28% of the continent's cruise market. European passenger numbers rose by 9% to 6.2 million. The global figure for 2011 was 20.6 million passengers.
Mr Dingle said: "Despite these challenging times the cruise industry is making an increasingly significant contribution to the British economy and that of mainland Europe by creating jobs and acting as a catalyst for tourism.
"Next year we will see more ships deployed in UK ports which we believe is testimony to the continued confidence in the UK as the world's second largest source market for the cruise industry."