Bob Dickinson, a master-marketeer who joined Carnival Cruise Lines 30 years ago when the cruise industry was in its infancy, announced on July 9th that was retiring as CEO and will leave the cruise ship company at the end of the year.

Dickinson, who likes to quip that when he came into the business ''the average age of a cruise passenger was deceased,'' is widely credited not just with growing the cruise market but extending the appeal of cruising to a much broader and younger audience.

Dickinson joined Carnival in 1972 as executive vice president when and helped create the ''Fun Ship'' concept. Over the three decades that followed, Carnival went from a tiny second-rate cruise line to the world's largest with 22 ships.

Gerry Cahill, chief financial officer of parent company Carnival Corp., immediately assumed Dickinson's title as president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines. Dickinson, who turns 65 in August, will continue as a director of the parent firm.

Cahill, 56, who has relatively little marketing experience, said he intends to use Dickinson as a sounding board during the transition.

Dickinson, credited with coining the expression that cruise ship passengers three decades ago largely consisted of "the newly wed or nearly dead,'' was a pioneer in the use of television advertising to attract more to cruising.