CLIA statistics show slight increase for 2018, with 1.35 million Australian cruisers.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia has just released its annual passenger figures for 2018, with the results showing the significant impact of infrastructure constraints, particularly in Sydney.
A total of 1.35 million Australians took an ocean cruise during 2018, a slight increase on the previous year’s record. However growth slowed to less than 1% year-on-year – and cruising in local waters was stagnant, with an increase of just 0.1% in passenger numbers.
However the number of Australians taking fly-cruise trips grew 3.4%, with CLIA saying this indicated demand remained strong in the local market.
“Cruising continues to be exceptionally popular among Australian travellers after many years of growth and world-leading market penetration,” said CLIA Australasia MD, Joel Katz.
“A lack of berthing capacity in Sydney has hampered cruise lines’ efforts to expand their operations in local waters, but the increasing number of Australians flying to ports overseas shows the market is still strong and holds great potential for the future,” he said.
In the inbound market about 200,000 international visitors cruised in local waters last year, more than half of them from North America. The majority of Australians (76.6%) cruised in Australia, NZ and the South Pacific. Europe/Mediterranean was the most popular long-haul destination (8.1%) followed by North America/Caribbean/Alaska/Hawaii (7.3%) and Asia (5.4%).
Katz said subdued growth was expected to continue into 2019, but larger ship deployments in 2020/21 and the debut of the new International Cruise Terminal in Brisbane were “expected to reignite growth in the Australian market”.
More information in today’s issue of Travel Daily and Cruise Weekly tomorrow.