Already the most popular destination for cruise passengers departing from Australia, the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu could be welcoming one-million visitors from cruise ships per year by 2020, Carnival Australia says. Fresh from smashing the onemillion pax milestone in 2014 (CW 26 May), CAU chief executive Ann Sherry set...
Already the most popular
destination for cruise passengers
departing from Australia, the
South Pacific nation of Vanuatu
could be welcoming one-million
visitors from cruise ships per year
by 2020, Carnival Australia says.
Fresh from smashing the onemillion
pax milestone in 2014
(CW 26 May), CAU chief executive
Ann Sherry set the next hurdle by
forecasting numbers to the South
Pacific to more than double in the
space of only six years.
Sherry was speaking at a
keynote business partnership
conference in Vanuatu onboard
P&O Cruises’ Pacific Dawn.
According to the 2014 CLIA
Australasia Cruise Industry Source
Market Report, the South Pacific
region saw 392,549 Aussies cruise
the region last year.
The figure was an 18.7% jump
on the 330,670 recorded in 2013,
and as cruise lines continue to
pump capacity into the market,
the tally will grow ever higher.
“Ten per cent market
penetration in Australia is
achievable within five years,
the equivalent of three million
passengers a year,” Sherry
said, “with more than a million
travelling to the South Pacific
based on current itineraries”.
With greater numbers comes
the need for new infrastructure
and access to new destinations,
something Carnival Australia said
it was eager to continue working
with Vanuatu to help materialise.
Sherry added the group was
encouraging Vanuatu to realise its
economic potential via cruising.
“There are many strands to
Carnival Australia’s commitment
to Vanuatu and we are always
looking to do more,” Sherry said.
