The past couple of years have seen plenty of stories about how the market in China for cruises has been booming and new ships being assigned to it, with Australia hardly in the news.
But Australia, it turns out, is a booming cruise land, with a 21% increase in 2016 over 2015, with over 5% of Australians taking a cruise last year. What's more, the biggest growth is in cruises directly from Australia, up 30% for cruises in Australia or to New Zealand and the South Pacific, passing the half-million mark for the first time. Figures are from Cruise Lines international Association.
The growth in local vs. fly-then-cruise actually meant a small drop in Australians taking cruises based in most other areas except Alaska, which went up 25%. The figures also show that shorter cruises, 4 days or less, are becoming more popular, perhaps because they're more affordable.
And as for age: only a third of Australian cruisers are under 40, with 15% over 70 and the rest scattered between.
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