PHOTO: The South Pacific is the top cruise destination for Australians. Pictured is Moorea. (Courtesy of Thinkstock)
Australians love to cruise, and more than 1 million did so for the first time in 2014, six years earlier than the original goal.
The numbers increased by 20.4 percent in 2014, the only major market to attain double-digit growth except for France (13.6 percent), according to the 2014 Australian Cruise Industry Source Market Report published by CLIA Australasia.
What's more, market penetration hit 4 percent in Australia, bypassing the more mature cruise market in North America, where 3.4 percent have taken a seagoing vacation.
The number of Australians taking river cruises also jumped 62 percent, to almost 80,000.
So where do Australians go? The top cruise destination is the South Pacific, which attracted more than 390,000 passengers, or 39 percent of the Australian cruise market. Asia grew 25 percent to 55,399, the Caribbean saw a 65 percent surge in passenger numbers to more than 31,000, and Europe grew 21 percent to 93,000.
Over the past 10 years, Australian cruise passenger numbers have grown more than six-fold, from a base of 158,000 in 2004.
During that period, the Australian cruise industry has averaged an annual growth rate in passenger numbers of 20 percent.
Globally, 22.1 million passengers took a cruise in 2014, with Australia's contribution accounting for 4.5 percent. As a result, Australia moved up one position to become the world's fourth-largest cruise passenger market after North America (54.2 percent), Germany (8 percent) and U.K./Ireland (7.4 percent).
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