Australia's love affair with cruising remains hot and strong with a new industry report revealing 1,058,781 passengers took a cruise last year – translating to 10.4 million days at sea.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Australia recorded a jump of 15 per cent compared with 2014 figures, branding us the world's fastest growing cruise market second only to China, according to the Cruise Lines International Association annual Source Market Report released on Thursday. Last year Australia was named the world's fastest-growing cruise market in the same report.
Domestic cruising is driving the upward trend more than ever before, said cruise industry boss Steve Odell, with a record 42 per cent hike in people opting for local itineraries compared with the previous year.
Regional ports such as Hamilton Island, Gladstone and Port Douglas as well as Fraser, Kangaroo and Moreton Islands are among the new stops that triggered a jump of 80,000 more ocean holidaymakers this year.
Mr Odell said a surge in the number of short break itineraries of four days or less between home ports was "capturing the imagination of Australians who see them as a new way to explore their nation".
He said a one-day visit by an ocean liner to holiday towns along Australia's coastline could inject up to half a million dollars into a regional community.
Great value, the advent of huge ships with theme-park style activities and the trend of extended families cruising together were factors influencing the continuing popularity of holidays at sea.
Domestic ports were a major focus for P&O, with new ships Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria leading the charge.
"Pacific Eden and Pacific Aria gave us the opportunity to spread our footprint around Australia," said P&O's Sture Myrell, "and we will continue to focus heavily in regional ports in the future, with Cairns coming on line later this year."
In the 2015/16 cruise season, Royal Caribbean's boutique Azamara Quest liner made maiden calls to five new local ports – Thursday Island, Cooktown, Townsville, Mooloolaba and Port Arthur.
"Cruising is one of the best ways to see our beautiful country. It allows you to travel between ports at night and during the day you can visit some of the country's best-known destinations and see some of the most stunning coastlines," said RCL boss Adam Armstrong.
For the first time this year, river cruise passenger numbers were not included in the annual CLIA report, with separate figures expected to be released later this year.
Despite the jump in local cruising popularity, the South Pacific remains the number one destination for people who choose to holiday at sea. European ports come in at number three with New Zealand cruisers breaking through the 100,000 passenger mark for the first time.
With 336 ship visits into Sydney in the past 12 months and no sign of cruising's popularity waning, the capacity of the Harbour to accommodate more ships continues to be hotly debated with the cruise industry pushing to find more berths on the eastern side of the Harbour Bridge. Port Botany, outside Sydney Harbour, is also under the microscope as a possible new embarkation point.
