They say cruising is one of the fastest growing sectors in Australia, they even say it’s increasing at super-speed around the world – but we never realised it was THIS popular.
The 2014 Economic Impact Analysis released by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) revealed global demand for cruising reached 22.04 million people in 2014 – up an incredible 68 percent from 13.1 million ten years ago.
Seriously, it’s growing so fast that The Flash wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.
The number of cruise passengers jumped by 3.4 percent last year compared to the 21.3 million in 2013.
What’s amazing is that thanks to the consistent growth in the Australian market (we hit a million last year), Aussie cruisers are now the fourth largest cruise market across the globe, behind the US (11.21 million passengers) Germany and the UK (accounting for 3.38 million).
And with so many new ships heading our way in the coming seasons (Golden Princess, Explorer of the Seas, Ovation of the Seas, Norwegian Star etc.) our market is only going to continue growing at a faster pace.
So, travel agents that haven’t started their cruise accreditation training may want to make it a priority – there’s plenty of business to go around.
CLIA acting CEO Cindy D’Aoust said there’s ‘huge’ potential for growth in the sector mainly because the majority of growing markets such as Australia, South America and Asia still only represent around 16 percent of cruisers.
The report also found the total contributions of the cruise industry to the global economy reached $11.9 billion in 2014 – up from $117 billion the previous year.
The industry supports 939,232 full-time equivalent employees earning $39.3 billion in income. Direct expenditures generated by cruise lines, passengers and crews totalled $55.8 billion.
