Cruising is literally booming in the Asia Pacific region at present!
For a start China is expected to be the world’s second source market by 2017, which is a remarkable development. However, much of the tangible development is occurring in Australia, which is fast becoming a major Cruise hub. Such growth in Australia is being further supported by the announcement that one of the largest Princess Cruises vessels the “Emerald Princess” will deployed to the region using Sydney as its Home Port in late 2016 for its first season.
The 3082 Lower Berth capacity Emerald Princess will join a rapidly growing fleet of 5 existing Princess ships in Australia and when the time comes, Australia will become home to the largest Princess Cruises fleet outside of the US, with a record capacity of 11,800 berths across all 5 vessels.
New Zealand and Papua New Guini are 2 more neighbour destinations growing rapidly on the back of this success story within Asia Pacific. Port Agent Cruise Market leaders within this region “Inchcape” otherwise known as ISS enjoyed -------- calls in Australia, New Zealand and Papau New Guini combined in 2014 and the outlook is set to rise further.
In many respects Asia Pacific was a saving grace for the Cruise Industry as growth in cruising started to slow in the more traditional Cruise markets of North America and Europe, partly caused by a mixture of weak growth, austerity and a general reduction of spending power.
