There’s no end in sight to the Australian cruising boom with the number of Australians taking taking an ocean cruise growing by 21% during 2016 to reach 1.281 million passengers, according to research by industry body Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia.
The rise and rise of the Australian cruise market – propelled by the ever-growing number of ships based out of Australia’s east coast – is only rivalled by the astonishing growth in China.
It means that Australians now comprise 5.2% of global cruise passengers, remarkable for a country with just 25 million people.
Key trends uncovered in the 2016 Australian Ocean Passenger Cruise Industry Source Market Report include:
- South Pacific was the most popular destination, attracting more than 42% of Australian ocean cruise passengers (542,825).
- Domestic cruising also extremely popular. Local cruisers grew 23.4% to 332,979.
- European and Asian cruise numbers ex-Australia fell by 11.8% and 10.1% respectively.
- Alaska cruise numbers grew 25.5%.
- 90% of Australians cruising in 2016 went for 14 days or less
- The average length of cruise was of 9.4 days.
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