Australia exceeds one million cruise passengers

Australia’s cruise industry has reached a new milestone, as new figures revealed that more than one million Australians took a cruise holiday in 2014.

One of the world’s fastest-growing cruise markets, Australia experienced a 20.4% increase in passenger numbers last year, reaching a total of 1,003,256. This means that Australia has now registered average annual growth of 20% over the past 12 years, with the country reaching the one million mark six years earlier than previously forecast.

Australia is also now the world’s leading market in terms of cruise penetration; 4.2% of Australians took a cruise in 2014, putting it ahead of North America (3.4%).

The data was revealed today by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia, at the recently refurbished Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney.

“These figures show that more and more Australians are realising that cruising is an easy, relaxing way to holiday which represents incredible value for money,” said CLIA Australasia’s chairman, Gavin Smith. “The expansion of our industry in recent years means there’s now a huge range of ships and itineraries on offer across the globe and I think Australians, who are inveterate travellers, are responding by increasingly factoring a cruise into their holiday plans.

“Five years ago, the industry thought that it might be possible to achieve one million passengers a year by 2020 – to reach that number in 2014 is an amazing result and shows the true passion Australians have for cruise holidays. If our growth rate continues at just 12.5% for the next six years, we will reach two million passengers by 2020,” Smith added.

Australia is now the fourth largest source market in the world for cruise passengers, accounting for 4.5% of the global total. Only North America (54.2%), Germany (8%) and UK & Ireland (7.4%) have more cruise passengers.

The most popular cruise destination for Australians is the South Pacific, attracting more than 390,000 passengers (39% of the total market), and intra-Australasian cruises accounted for 67% of the total market.

Cruises of 8-14 days remain the most popular, attracting 54% of passengers, although shorter cruises of up to four days experienced a 59% surge in numbers. River cruising numbers also grew strongly, rising by more than 60% to 79,530.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com