(Australia-NewsWire.Com, November 11, 2012 ) Victoria, Australia- Australia's biggest cruise operator, Carnival Australia, expects more than 325,000 Australian and international passengers to board its ships this summer. That number represents a 5% increase from last year’s total. Experts attribute the surge in popularity to the great value, size, convenience, and accessibility of cruise holidays.
Altogether 19 Carnival Australia ships, including P&O Cruises' Pacific Jewel and Princess Cruises' Dawn Princess, will make 310 calls to Australian ports. The collective fleet will visit 27 towns and cities, and pour more than $235 million into the Australian economy over the cruise season, which launches this month and runs until April.
A record 14 Carnival Australia ships will be based in the country to offer round trip cruises, while another five ships will visit as part of their world cruising itineraries.
It will include the Australian debut of Carnival Spirit, which will be based here full-time as well as maiden visits from Holland America's Oosterdam and the luxurious Seabourn Quest. Cunard's flagship, Queen Mary 2, will also undertake her first circumnavigation of New Zealand in a round-trip voyage from Sydney next March.
Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry said the company will carry more than three times the number of passengers who cruised eight years ago, when it had seven ships sailing local waters.
Australia's cruise industry recorded a 34% rise in the number of Australians taking local and international cruise holidays last year, with passenger numbers rising to more than 620,000, according to the International Cruise Council of Australasia.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, this compares to more than one million trips to New Zealand taken last year, 900,000 to Indonesia, and 800,000 to the United States.
Royal Caribbean Cruises is also expecting to more than double its passenger numbers to 200,000 this season as its Voyager of the Seas and Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Solstice will also visit Australia for the first time.
Experts attribute the surge in the popularity of cruising to the great value of cruise holidays, more and bigger ships coming to Australia, convenience and accessibility.
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