Detailed Report on Growth of Cruise Tourism in Australia

This report examines the significant growth of cruise tourism in Australia, highlighting the increasing number of cruise passengers and the country's position as a leading market in the global cruise industry. It explores the destinations favored by Australian cruise passengers, with a focus on the South Pacific region and domestic locations, and analyzes passenger demographics, noting the strong demand from New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria. The report also identifies key factors driving the industry's growth, including Australia's coastal geography, attractive destinations, economic prosperity, affordability, and infrastructural development. Furthermore, it discusses the impressive growth trends in the Western Australian cruise market, emphasizing the region's increasing number of cruisers and its potential for future expansion.

Running head: GROWTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Growth of Cruise Tourism in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Cruising in Australia..................................................................................................................2
Destinations and patterns of cruising in Australian market...................................................6
Passenger demographics in Australian cruising industry.......................................................7
Reasons behind development of cruise industry in Australia..............................................10
Growth of Cruising industry in Western Australia..................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................14

2GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Introduction
The tourism industry, in the contemporary global framework, has developed profusely
and extensively worldwide, much of which can be attributed to phenomena like
Globalization, Liberalizations and technological as well as infrastructural innovations, which
on one hand have contributed to greater economic well being of a considerable section of
global population, which is not confined to developed countries only and on other hand has
made travelling domestically as well as internationally more convenient (Holland, 2018).
This in turn has resulted in the rapid development of the tourism industry, thereby making the
same one of the largest industry in the global framework.
The tourism industry has diversified and developed various genres in its domain,
catering to the increasing demands and dynamics in the preference patterns of the customers
across the globe. One of the newest forms of tourism, in this context, has been the cruise
tourism (Rodrigue & Notteboom, 2013). Although traveling by water has remained as one of
the primitive forms of overseas travelling, however the concept of tourism and holidaying by
cruise has been developing in the recent periods and the cruise tourism is developing as one
of the fastest growing aspects of the already expanding tourism industry (Hadad et al., 2012).
Keeping the fast growth of cruising as a form of tourism and the continually
increasing global demand for the same into consideration, the concerned report tries to
examine and analyse the growth of the cruising industry and cruise tourism in one of the
dominant and most developed countries in the global framework, Australia, thereby
emphasizing on especially the growth of the same in the Western Australian region over the
last few years.

3GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Cruising in Australia
Cruising as an important component of the tourism industry has been developing
immensely in the contemporary period, in the global scenario as can be seen from the rising
number of cruise passengers in the world across the world, as can be seen from the following
figure:
Figure 1: Increase in the number of global passengers in the cruise tourism
(Source: Cliaasia.org, 2018)
The impressive growth trend in the global cruising industry can be considerably
attributed to the immense growth of the demand as well as supply of cruising services,
primarily in the developed countries, Australia being one of such countries (Weaver & Duval,
2014). This can be shown with the help of the following figure:

4GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 2: Number of cruise passengers (in millions) from the primary source markets
(2016)
(Source: Statista.com, 2018)
As is evident from the above figure, Australia ranks among the first five countries in
terms of the primary source markets with maximum demand for cruising and cruise holidays,
thereby indicating towards the fact that cruise tourism, as an industry under the domain of the
tourism industry itself, has been considerably developing in the country (Coggins Jr, 2014).
The cruise industry, has however developed abruptly in the last few years in the
country, as can be seen from the sudden increase in the number of demand side players in the
industry in Australia, which can be seen from the following figure:
Figure 3: Increase in the number of cruise passengers in Australia over the last decade
(Source: Goldcoast.qld.gov.au, 2018)
As is evident from the above figure, the number of clients in the cruising industry has
increased continually from 2006. However, the rate of increase in the same gained a steady
impetus post 2010, after which the increase has been substantial (Chon, 2013). The ten years

5GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
average growth of the demand side of the cruise industry in Australia, as can be seen from the
above figure, is nearly 19.2% which is highly impressive as per the global standards in this
aspect. The year wise percentage growth of the passengers in the cruising industry of this
country can be seen from the following figure:
Figure 4: Percentage change in the growth rates of the number of cruise passengers in
Australia
(Source: Cruising.org.au, 2018)
With the impressive growth rate of the cruse industry in the country and a record
breaking run of the same, the cruise tourism industry of the country has reached its target of
including one million local clients in the industry by 2014, which was six years ahead of their
target. Australia, thus, can be safely considered as the fastest growing passenger market for
cruise tourism in the contemporary global scenario, with highest market penetration in this
aspect compared to any other cruising nations, which can be seen from the following figure,
which compares the market penetration of the cruising industry in different dominant
countries and passenger markets:

6GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
(Source: Tourism-review.com, 2018)
Figure 5: Market penetration of cruise industry in Australia
Destinations and patterns of cruising in Australian market
Cruise tourism in Australia has developed considerably in the last few years with a
fare share of increase in the demand for international cruising as well as small duration
domestic cruising within the country itself. On one hand, while the Australian passengers
have been seen to increasingly indulge in international cruising, on the other hand, a number
of domestic cruising options have also developed in the country, which has contributed
significantly in developing the numbers of cruise tourism as a whole in the country. In the
domain of international as well as domestic cruising, the destinations which are mostly
visited by the Australian passengers can be seen from the following figure:

7GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 6: Destinations where the Australian passengers mainly prefer to cruise
(Source: Cruising.org, 2018)
As is evident from the above figure, the most visited destinations for Australian cruise
passengers are the South Pacific Region (42.4%) and the domestic locations in Australia itself
(26.0%), followed by other destinations like New Zealand, European countries and Asia.
Passenger demographics in Australian cruising industry
People from all parts of the country has been seen to be taking interest in cruise
tourism, in the recent years. However, if the numbers of passengers are seen region wise, then
the country shows a somewhat skewed distribution as is evident from the following figure:

8GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 7: Growth of passengers by origin in Australia
(Source: Cruising.org, 2018)
As is evident from the above figure, the highest demand for cruise tourism is seen to
be coming from the New South Wales region of the country. This is followed by the
population of Queensland and Victoria. NSW accounts for nearly 40.8% of all the cruisers in
Australia and the numbers have increased by 23.9% from 2015 to 2016. On the other hand,
the Queensland population is seen to contribute nearly 23.8% of the country’s cruising
population in 2016 (Gibson, 2012).
On the other hand, the other regions like Western and South Australia, though
contributing lesser numbers of cruise passengers, as compared to the three primary regions,
are seen to be growing significantly in the recent periods, which will be discussed in the later
sections of the report.

9GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
The Australian cruise population can be seen to be of all age groups and the distribution is
seen to be more or less uniform as can be seen from the following figure:
Figure 8: Population of cruise passengers by age
(Source: Cruising.org, 2018)
From the above figure, it is evident that the population below 40 years contribute a
major share in the total cruising population of the country, followed by the age group of
above 70 years. The other age clusters contribute more or less uniformly in the cruising
passenger population of the country (Bonilla-Priego, Font & del Rosario Pacheco-Olivares,
2014). This in turn implies that cruising is especially popular among the youth and young age
population as well as among the retired and old age population of the country, who generally
tend to book cruise holidays for leisure and relaxation.
The growth of the cruising market of Australia can also be seen from the total number
of sea days of the Australians, the increase of which can be seen in the following figure:

10GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
Figure 9: Increase in the number of sea days of the Australian cruise passengers
(Source: Cruising.org, 2018)
As is evident from the above figure, the number of sea days has been consistently
increasing over the years, with nearly 12.1 million sea days for the Australians in 2016,
which is nearly an increase of 84% in the last five years.
Sydney being the best cruise destination in Australia as well as in New Zealand and
also the best homeport of the country and with nearly 336 ships visiting Sydney in the last
years, cruise tourism is the fastest growing sector of tourism in Australia and the industry
contribute more than five billion AUD to the economy of the country in the recent periods.
Reasons behind development of cruise industry in Australia
There are several key factors contributing towards the growth of the cruise industry
and cruise tourism in Australia, the primary ones being as follows:
a) Regions of habitation- The country is itself surrounded by sea and nearly 80% of the
population of the country live within the radius of 50 kilometres from the different sea coasts.
The beautiful sea coasts and vast oceans induce the love for cruising in the Australians and

11GRWOTH OF CRUISE TOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
they can assess beautiful local as well as international cruising destinations by relatively
shorter ocean routes.
b) Wonderful destinations- There lie the options of Great Barrier Reef, wonders of New
Zealand, coastal cities as well as tropical regions of the South Pacific Zone in short radius of
the country. Longer cruise options include exploring Asia and beyond as well as European
countries, all of which tempts the Australians to indulge in cruising more.
c) Economic Prosperity- Over the years, the country has developed considerably showing
impressive growth patterns in the economy, which in turn has contributed in raising the
economic welfare and standard of living of a fair share of people in the country. This
economic abundance also plays a key role in increasing the number of cruise travellers in the
country, which in turn has led to the growth of cruising industry (Amelung & Nicholls,
2014).
d) Affordability- The cruising packages, especially the short ones are extremely affordable
for most of the Australians, which also contribute significantly in the growth of the industry
in the country.
e) Infrastructural development- Not only the cruise ships but also the ports and the other
infrastructures related to the same has developed significantly in the country, which has also
facilitated the development of the industry in the country.
Keeping these into consideration, the following section discusses the growth of the
cruising industry in the Western Australian region specifically.
Growth of Cruising industry in Western Australia
As has been seen from the above discussion, the lions’ share of the cruise passengers
of the country comes from the three big names. However, though the share of Western