The Australian cruise market, which grew by 20.4% to reach 1.00 million passengers, may double in size by 2020 if it only maintained half the growth rate of the past 12 years.
"The landmark achievement of one million passengers in a calendar year comes six years before originally anticipated, and has been driven by an impressive 20% annual average growth for the past 12 years,' CLIA Australasia said in a statement.
“Five years ago, the industry thought that it might be possible to achieve one million passengers a year by 2020 – to reach that number in 2014 is an amazing result and shows the true passion Australians have for cruise holidays. If our growth rate continues at just 12.5% for the next six years, we will reach two million passengers by 2020,” said CLIA Australasia Chairman Gavin Smith in a statement.
Ann Sherry, head of Carnival Australia that operates Carnival Corp & plc group's brands in the country, has said that in Australia cruising does not have the same image problem that it suffers from in many other countries, where it is viewed mainly as a holiday option for an older and wealthier clientele.
In Australia, companies such as P&O Cruises and now no longer extant Sitmar Cruises, Chandris Cruises and CTC Lines offered inexpensive cruises from the 1970s onwards, sometimes on vessels whose main business had been carrying emigrants in basic accommodations. This meant that cruising never acquired an image that it mainly suits for the elderly and the wealthy.
