| CLIA Cruise News & Views 7 April 16

CRUISE SHIP ORDER BOOK:
The cruise boom we have
experienced in this region could
well be attributed to an unlikely
global event that turned out to be
quite advantageous for Australian
and New Zealand passengers.
When the Global Financial Crisis
started to unfold in North America,
it had a major impact on the
traditional source market for cruise
passengers (USA).
This gave cruise line executives
the opportunity (or some may
argue it forced their hand) to
redeploy capacity around the
world looking for new source
markets.
With Australia (and to a lesser
extent the smaller NZ market)
starting to show some promise
with double digit growth, it
became a very good opportunity to
test the region as a viable long-term
proposition.
History shows as we draw toward
the end of our 2015-16 cruise
season, we’ve experienced more
capacity than ever before & over
the last few years this increase in
local capacity has given more &
more Aussies & Kiwis the chance to
cruise for the first time.
In the next five years there are
nearly 50 cruise ships on order in
ship yards around the world which
will deliver increased capacity of
close to 150,000 berths.
Perhaps we could consider
ourselves the saviour of the global
cruise industry in recent years!

CONTRIBUTOR: Brett Jardine, CLIA Australia