The Australian cruise market, which is the fastest growing market of significant size in the world, is likely to reach 1 million passengers in 2020, International Cruise council of Australasia (ICCA) said. However, should the market continue to expand even near the average rate of the past decade, the figure could be hit earlier.
“To reach its target of one million Australian cruise passengers by the year 2020, the cruise industry needs to achieve an annual average growth rate of just over 5% for the next nine years, ICCA said in a report on the Australian cruise market. The year 2011 was outstanding for the industry on the island continent, as figures provided by the ICCA’s 27 member cruise lines in Australia indicate that a record 623,294 Australians took a cruise holiday in 2011 – a massive 34% rise on the previous year’s figure of 466,692.
“This is the largest annual increase, both in percentage terms and real numbers, for Australia since the ICCA first began compiling cruise passenger statistics in 2002. It is also the highest growth rate recorded by any major cruise source market in the world in 2011,” ICCA said. Significantly, cruise passenger numbers are now almost triple the figure recorded just five years ago, when in 2006 the number of Australian cruise passengers reached 221,000. The annual average rate of growth over that period is more than 23% while the annual average growth rate since the ICCA figures were first collated in 2002 is almost 21%.
